US senator claims no evidence to prove Russia helped Snowden steal U.S. secrets

A U.S. lawmaker has said she has seen no evidence that Russian spies helped former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden steal U.S. eavesdropping secrets.

The chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein, made the comments on MSNBC contrast with statements made by her Republican counterpart in the House of Representative Intelligence Committee, Mike Rogers.

According to the Huffington Post, Rogers suggested earlier this month that Russia had acquired influence over Snowden before he left his job as an NSA contractor.

He claimed that Snowden travelled to Hong Kong, where he leaked tens of thousands of classified documents describing U.S. and British eavesdropping operations.

Feinstein said she had no information to that effect, adding that she has never seen anything.

A senior U.S. official familiar with the matter said that he had seen no evidence Snowden had been recruited or influenced by Russia to acquire and leak U.S. eavesdropping secrets, the report added.