Russia Considers Handing Over Snowden as a “gift” to President Trump
U.S. intelligence agencies have obtained information that reveals Russia may consider giving up Edward Snowden as a “gift” to President Donald Trump who has previously titled the former-NSA employee a “spy” and a “traitor” who should be executed.
A senior U.S. official reported the information; they also reviewed multiple waves of highly sensitive intelligent reports which reveal the Russian consideration. The source claims that the Snowden handover is one of the multiple plans Russia has to “curry favor” with President Trump. An additional source from the intelligence community confirmed later that the information regarding the Russian conversations and ploys had been acknowledged since the inauguration.
Snowden’s ACLU lawyer, Ben Wizner, reported that they are uninformed regarding any potential plans to deport the man to the United States.
“Team Snowden has received no such signals and has no new reason for concern,” Wizner explained.
Former deputy national security adviser Juan Zarate heavily requested that the Trump administration be extremely careful regarding the acceptance of any potential Snowden offer from Vladimir Putin, Russia’s President.
“For Russia, this would be a win-win. They’ve already extracted what they needed from Edward Snowden regarding information, and they’ve certainly used him to beat the United States over the head regarding its surveillance and cyber activity,” Zarate warned.
“It would signal warmer relations and some desire for greater cooperation with the new administration, but it would also no doubt stoke controversies and cases in the U.S. around the role of surveillance, the role of the U.S. intelligence community, and the future of privacy and civil liberties in an American context.”
“All of that would perhaps be music to the ears of Putin.”