At NBC News, Michael Isikoff has obtained an NSA memo with more details on the reports that NSA leaker Edward Snowden tricked fellow workers into giving him their passwords in order to steal top secret documents: Exclusive: Snowden Swiped Password From NSA Coworker.

While the memo’s account is sketchy, it suggests that, contrary to Snowden’s statements, he used an element of trickery to retrieve his trove of tens of thousands of classified documents: “At Snowden’s request,” the civilian NSA employee, who is not identified by name, entered his password onto Snowden’s computer terminal, the memo states.

“Unbeknownst to the civilian, Mr. Snowden was able to capture the password, allowing him even greater access to classified information,” the memo states.

The memo states that the civilian employee was unaware that Snowden “intended to unlawfully disclose classified information.” Nevertheless, by sharing with Snowden his personal “public key infrastructure” certificate — a system of highly secure credentials that provided greater access to NSA’s internal computer system — the employee “failed to comply with security obligations,” the memo states. As a result, the employee’s security clearance was revoked in November and the NSA has notified the Justice Department that he recently resigned. (A public key infrastructure certificate is a highly secure system of password and log-in exchanges designed to protect against unauthorized access to sensitive computer networks.)

Snowden has flatly denied he stole any passwords, because that would deflate his glamorized libertarian image as a super-hacker.

And if you’ve been following the Snowden story, you already know how Glenn Greenwald and his cronies are reacting to this report: with mockery and derision, and accusations that the NSA is simply lying. In other words, the same way they always react.

There’s no reason to be the slightest bit skeptical about a memo prepared by the NSA about Snowden & intended for public release #USMedia

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 13, 2014

@TinaBrownLM Yeah, or maybe uncritically believing NSA claims about Snowden - intended for public release - isn’t such a good idea.

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 13, 2014

They claimed with no evidence that Snowden took 1.7m docs; therefore he did #Media RT @Asher_Wolf You all believing NSA memos now? Bwhahahah

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 13, 2014

It’s the agency whose every word is Truth #Media RT @Asher_Wolf You all believing NSA memos now? Bwhahahahah

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 13, 2014

It’s absolutely vital to Greenwald to portray Edward Snowden as the saintliest of heroes, honest to a fault, incapable of telling a lie or deceiving anyone. He’s built a cult of personality around Snowden.

Of course, Snowden took an NSA contracting job under false pretenses, lied about taking a “medical” leave of absence, broke his oath of secrecy, stole more than a million top secret documents, and defected to Russia. But we’re supposed to laugh at the idea that he tricked his co-workers into revealing their passwords.

The Greenwaldian cult is more anti-government than the most rabid Tea Partier.