Edward Snowden: Russian collusion is too ‘complicated’ for Trump

Edward Snowden in a recent interview expressed skepticism about special counsel Robert Mueller’s ability to find collusion between President Trump and Russia in his ongoing investigation, saying such a scheme would be too “complicated” for a “guy [that] can’t even remember what he was going to say at the end of a sentence.”

The former National Security Agency contractor and controversial whistleblower recommended that Americans temper their expectations that Mueller will come up with a “smoking gun” in the probe.

“I think people are asking for too much when they hope that the Mueller investigation is going to come up with kind of a smoking gun and say, ‘Yes! Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, in the hotel room with the piss tape!’” Snowden told The Intercept, referring to salacious allegations included in the so-called Steele dossier.

“You know that’s not how the world works, life is not that simple,” he said.

Snowden, who fled the US in 2013 and took refuge in Russia, suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not have wanted to engage Trump in a direct plot to interfere in the presidential election because of his often erratic loquaciousness. 

{mosads}“And to be honest, everyone who has heard Trump speak for three minutes knows he’s a wrecking ball,” Snowden said. “This does not sound like the kind of person that you would want to engage in some kind of complicated Manchurian Candidate … the guy can’t even remember what he was going to say at the end of a sentence.”

Snowden added that the possibility of some sort of collusion is still there.

“But that doesn’t mean that he didn’t want to cooperate, that doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t do anything to achieve an advantage,” he told The Intercept. “I just think we just need to be realistic about what an investigation can possibly find.”

Trump has been harshly critical of Snowden in the past, calling him a “total traitor” and suggesting that he should be executed because he leaked top secret information from the NSA.

Like it or not, Edward Snowden is a SPY and should be tried as a SPY! He has stolen invaluable information and damaged us with other nations

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2014

Last year, NBC News and others reported that Russia might return Snowden to the U.S. as a gesture of goodwill to Trump. According to NBC News, Snowden responded to the report with a tweet saying that the report proved he did not cooperate with Russian intelligence, as some have claimed, because “no country trades away spies.”

Snowden has also criticized Trump, most recently by speaking out against his nomination of newly-confirmed CIA Director Gina Haspel over her ties to the CIA’s enhanced interrogation program.