WASHINGTON: The US administration has filed espionage charges against Edward Snowden who leaked secret surveillance documents to media outlets earlier this month.

Documents filed in a Virginia court on Friday claimed that Mr Snowden had already admitted to revealing official secrets to the media.

Before joining a private security firm, Booz Allen Hamilton, Mr Snowden worked for the Central Intelligence Agency and the US National Security Agency.

Earlier this month, Mr Snowden shared with the media classified material on some top-secret NSA programmes, including the interception of US telephone metadata and computerised surveillance systems. He leaked the documents to The Guardian, London, which published a series of exposés, greatly embarrassing the Obama administration.

Mr Snowden said the leaks were an effort to inform the American public about what the US administration was doing in their name. “I cannot allow the US government to destroy privacy and basic liberties,” he said.

Mr Snowden’s leaks rank among the most significant breaches in the history of the NSA, confirming longstanding suspicions that US surveillance programmes also targeted American citizens.