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Jeffrey Toobin, the anti-Greenwald

The Edward Snowden affair has raised the profile of all its players: Snowden, who leaked classified information about the NSA's surveillance program; Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian reporter who published much of that information; even David Miranda, Greenwald's partner, who was detained at Heathrow over the weekend on suspicion of carrying classified documents.

But the most recent player to take the stage is Jeffrey Toobin, the CNN legal analyst and New Yorker staff writer who has become, in the eyes of the aforementioned trifecta, a Judas-like figure: the fellow journalist who betrayed the home-team and sided with the authorities.

Like The Washington Post's Walter Pincus before him, Toobin faults the press for thinking that it is somehow above the law. In New Yorker blog posts and CNN interviews, Toobin has stated over and over that Snowden is not a hero but a criminal. On Tuesday night, he compared Miranda to a "drug mule" — a statement he stood by in an interview with POLITICO on Wednesday.

"It's an analogy, not a photocopy, but I think it's a very apt analogy," he said. "If you hand someone something that you know is unlawful to posess and you send that person through customs, that person is in real jeapordy. That's true whether it's drugs or illegally obtained classified informaiton — that's just the law."

Greenwald has responded to such remarks by accusing Toobin of being a government shill: "Most amazing feat of US Govt is to get journalists to take the lead in demanding the criminalization of journalism," he tweeted after Toobin made the "drug mule" remark.

Other journalists have dug in as well. The New Yorker's John Cassidy has served as a counterbalance to Toobin on the magazine's website. MSNBC's Ari Melber argued on Wednesday that "holding classified information for a reporter is not the same as swallowing a bag of heroin for a drug dealer." Others have delighted in the apparent contradiction Toobin made when he claimed to support public discussion about Snowden's classified materials even while arguing that Snowden is a criminal.

Toobin dismisses the notion that he is somehow anti-journalist: "I understand that classified information presents difficulties for reporters and I admire the journalists who report in this area a great deal," he said. He added this his views on the Snowden debate are shaped by his early expeirence as an assistant U.S. attorney and as an associate counsel to Lawrence Walsh during the Iran-Contra affair.

Walter Pincus, whom he interviewed during the Scooter Libby trial, also had an influence: "I remember how surprised I was to hear Walter say, 'Journalists are not above the law. We have to follow the law too, and if you expect the public to support us in our efforts, we cannot pretend that we are exempt from the laws that govern everyone."

"We have a first amendment, thank God for that, but sanctimony is not the way to honor the First Amendment's values," Toobin added. "You have to engage with the actual obligations of citizenship as well."

As for the attacks from his fellow journalists, he's taking those in stride.

"I'm a big boy, people can criticize me all they want. I'm not going to complain about how I'm being characterized," he said.

He also has no plans of letting up. Shortly after our interview, he tweeted: "More #greenwald and "mules" tonight" on CNN.