WASHINGTON, January 28 (RIA Novosti) – A senior US lawmaker said Tuesday that she has seen no evidence that intelligence leaker Edward Snowden was working with Russia when he disclosed troves of documents on classified US spying programs.
“I have no information to that effect. I have never seen anything to that effect,” Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told the US cable network MSNBC.
Feinstein said earlier this month that Snowden “may well have” been working with a foreign government when he leaked information about mass electronic surveillance programs operated by the US National Security Agency (NSA).
“We don’t know at this stage,” she said on January 19 during a discussion on the NBC talk show “Meet the Press.”
During the show, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers, said Snowden may have been collaborating with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).
“I believe there’s a reason he ended up in the hands – the loving arms – of an FSB agent in Moscow. I don’t think that’s a coincidence,” said Rogers, a Republican from Michigan.
Snowden said the claims were baseless, noting that spies are treated better than being left to live in a Moscow airport for more than a month while in legal limbo.
His lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, dismissed Rogers’ accusations as well, saying they were intended to besmirch Russia.
Russia granted Snowden temporary asylum in August, and he said in an interview last month that he is now residing in a Moscow suburb.
