Hong Kong officials say the U.S. government got National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden's middle name wrong in documents it submitted to back a request for his arrest. Justice Secretary Rimsky Yuen said that discrepancies in the paperwork filed by U.S. authorities were to blame, although the U.S. Justice Department denied that Wednesday. Yuen said Hong Kong immigration records listed Snowden's middle name as Joseph, but the U.S. government used the name James in some documents and referred to him only as Edward J. Snowden in others. "These three names are not exactly the same, therefore we believed that there was a need to clarify," he said Tuesday. The Guardian/AP Photo The U.S. Justice Department rejected the notion Hong Kong had required clarification about Snowden's middle name - or that it needed his passport number, saying the U.S. had provided to Hong Kong all that was required under the terms of their extradition treaty. The fugitive's photos and videos were widely reported through multiple news outlets. That Hong Kong would ask for more information about his identity demonstrates that it was simply trying to create a pretext for not acting on the provisional arrest request," a spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the department. Simon Young, a Hong Kong University professor specializing in criminal law, said that because of the "political sensitivities" involved in the case, authorities had not rushed the case and were taking extra care. I think that the Hong Kong government was insisting on a fairly high standard of completeness, and that, I assume, is their practice. They know that our courts will look at these things very closely and they don't take shortcuts," he said. But he and other legal experts said Hong Kong authorities are typically able to exercise their discretion and use other methods, such as a photo or physical description, to identify fugitives, who often use aliases. It's not like he's some mystery figure. He revealed himself on TV," Young said. The whole world knows what he looks like. So again I didn't see this presenting problems of identification.