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Report: Edward Snowden's Lawyer Says He's Trying to Come Home
In this image made from video released by WikiLeaks on Friday, Oct. 11, 2013, former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden speaks during a presentation ceremony for the Sam Adams Award in Moscow, Russia. Should Snowden ever return to the U.S., he would face criminal charges for leaking information about NSA surveillance programs. But legal experts say a trial could expose more classified information as his lawyers try to build a case in an open court that the operations he exposed were illegal. (AP Photo)

Report: Edward Snowden's Lawyer Says He's Trying to Come Home

"Wants to return back home."

Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who leaked information about the U.S. government's mass surveillance programs and sparked an intense national privacy debate, wants to come home, his Russian lawyer said.

"I won't keep it secret that he … wants to return back home. And we are doing everything possible now to solve this issue. There is a group of U.S. lawyers, there is also a group of German lawyers and I'm dealing with it on the Russian side," Anatoly Kucherena, a lawyer who works for Snowden, said at a news conference Tuesday, according to Reuters. Kucherena reportedly has ties to the Kremlin.

In this image made from video released by WikiLeaks on Friday, Oct. 11, 2013, former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden speaks during a presentation ceremony for the Sam Adams Award in Moscow, Russia. Should Snowden ever return to the U.S., he would face criminal charges for leaking information about NSA surveillance programs. But legal experts say a trial could expose more classified information as his lawyers try to build a case in an open court that the operations he exposed were illegal. (AP Photo) AP

Snowden initially fled the U.S. for Hong Kong amid his bombshell NSA revelations, then later went to Russia amid tense U.S. relations with the country. Russia granted Snowden a three-year residency permit in 2013 and has refused to send him back to the U.S., where he faces espionage charges.

While many see Snowden as a hero and whistleblower for privacy rights, others consider him a traitor for putting classified national security information at risk. President Barack Obama has called for Russia to release him back to the U.S. so that he can face trial.

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Jon Street

Jon Street

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