President Barack Obama should send Edward Snowden a “thank you letter” for bringing transparency to the administration, former Rep. Ron Paul says.

“Finally we’re getting the president to fulfill his promise about transparency so that’s pretty exciting to me,” he told CNN’s Piers Morgan on Monday night.

Paul said Snowden has “done a great service for telling the truth” about the government surveillance program.

(Also on POLITICO: 10 things to know about Edward Snowden)

“When you have a dictatorship or an authoritarian government, truth becomes treasonous and this is what they do if you are a whistle blower or you’re trying to tell the American people our country is destroying our rule of law or destroying our constitution, they turn it on and they say oh, you’re committing treason,” Paul said.

“For somebody to tell the American people the truth is a heroic effort.”

(PHOTOS: 10 famous whistleblowers)

Snowden reportedly donated a total of $500 to Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/ron-paul-edward-snowden-nsa-leak-92559....