Inquiry: Snowden in contact with Russia’s spy services

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden remains in contact with Russian intelligence services, according to a bipartisan congressional report released at a time when Russia is considered a top national-security concern.

The two-year inquiry focused on Snowden’s 2013 leak of classified U.S. material about America’s surveillance programs. It concluded that Snowden compromised national security by these disclosures and is avoiding prosecution while living in a country that is considered one of the top U.S. adversaries. In recent months, U.S. intelligence agencies have been outspoken about their beliefs that Russia actively interfered in the U.S. political process by hacking into private email accounts.

The report sends a strong message to President Barack Obama during his final days in office: Do not pardon Edward Snowden.

Obama has not offered any indication that he is considering pardoning Snowden for the leaks that embarrassed the U.S. and angered allies. Lisa Monaco, Obama’s adviser on homeland security and counterterrorism, said last year that Snowden “should come home to the United States and be judged by a jury of his peers – not hide behind the cover of an authoritarian regime.”

However, there has been a push by privacy-advocacy groups to pardon the former NSA contractor who they herald as a whistleblower for leaking documents that disclosed the extent of the data the U.S. collects on Americans in its efforts to fight terrorism. After the disclosures, Obama reined in some of the surveillance authorities and put in place additional measures to provide more transparency to the classified programs.