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 / Updated By Cynthia McFadden and William Arkin 
 
 U.S. intelligence has collected information that Russia is considering turning over Edward Snowden as a "gift" to President Donald Trump — who has called the NSA leaker a "spy" and a "traitor" who deserves to be executed. 
 
 That's according to a senior U.S. official who has analyzed a series of highly sensitive intelligence reports detailing Russian deliberations and who says a Snowden handover is one of various ploys to "curry favor" with Trump. A second source in the intelligence community confirms the intelligence about the Russian conversations and notes it has been gathered since the inauguration. 
 
 American whistleblower Edward Snowden is seen on a screen as he delivers a speech during the Roskilde Festival in Roskilde, Denmark, June 28 2016. Mathias Loevgreen Bojesen / Scanpix Denmark via Reuters 
 
 Snowden's ACLU lawyer, Ben Wizner, told NBC News they are unaware of any plans that would send him back to the United States. 
 
 "Team Snowden has received no such signals and has no new reason for concern," Wizner said. 
 
 Snowden responded to NBC’s report on Twitter and said it shows that he did not work with the Russian government. 
 
 "Finally: irrefutable evidence that I never cooperated with Russian intel,” Snowden said. “No country trades away spies, as the rest would fear they're next." 
 
 Snowden's Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, reacted to the report with dismay. 
 
 "There are no reasons to extradite Edward Snowden to the U.S.," Kucherena said, according to TASS, the state-owned news agency. "This is some kind of speculation coming from so-called US special service sources. I think this topic was and remains on the political plane in the U.S., but it's American special services that are puppeteering this story with sporadic information plants." 
 
 "There is not the slightest reason to raise or discuss this topic in Russia," Kucherena said. 
 
 Russia, he said, does not sell people. "The Snowden issue cannot be a bargaining chip on any level, neither political nor economic," he said, according to the news agency. 
 
 Former deputy national security adviser Juan Zarate urged the Trump administration to be cautious in accepting any Snowden offer from Russian President Vladimir Putin. 
 
 "For Russia, this would be a win-win. They've already extracted what they needed from Edward Snowden in terms of information and they've certainly used him to beat the United States over the head in terms of its surveillance and cyber activity," Zarate said. 
 
 "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." 
 
 (Left) Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Moscow State University in Moscow, Russia on Jan. 25. (Right) President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 25. Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool via EPA and / Jonathan Ernst/Reuters 
 
 The White House had no comment, but the Justice Department told NBC News it would welcome the return of Snowden, who currently faces federal charges that carry a minimum of 30 years in prison. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said talk about returning Snowden is "nonsense." 
 
 If he were returned to American soil, Snowden — a divisive figure in America who is seen by some as a hero and others as treasonous — would face an administration that has condemned him in the strongest terms. 
 
 "I think he’s a total traitor and I would deal with him harshly," Trump said in July. "And if I were president, Putin would give him over." In October 2013, Trump tweeted: "Snowden is a spy who should be executed." 
 
 CIA Director Mike Pompeo has also called for Snowden to face American justice. "I think the proper outcome would be that he would be given a death sentence," Pompeo said last February. 
 
 Related: Congress Calls Edward Snowden a Liar in New Report 
 
 Snowden was working as a contractor at a National Security Agency facility in Hawaii when he began stealing top-secret documents that he gave to journalists in 2013, exposing details of U.S. domestic surveillance programs. 
 
 After Snowden fled to Hong Kong and was charged with violating the U.S. Espionage Act, he ended up in Russia. Moscow granted him refuge and officials say his residency permit was recently extended until 2020. 
 
 Related: Snowden's Lawyer Says He Can Apply for Russian Passport in a Year 
 
 In an interview streamed on Twitter in December, Snowden said being forced to return to the U.S. would be a human-rights violation but would also put to rest to accusations that he is a Russian spy. 
 
 "A lot of people have asked me: Is there going to be some kind of deal where Trump says, 'Hey look, give this guy to me as some kind of present'? Will I be sent back to the U.S., where I’ll be facing a show trial?" Snowden said. 
 
 "Is this going to happen? I don’t know. Could it happen? Sure. Am I worried about it? Not really, because here’s the thing: I am very comfortable with the decisions that I’ve made. I know I did the right thing." 
 
 More than 1 million people signed a White House petition calling for then-President Obama to pardon Snowden. Snowden himself did not file an application and tweeted that Army leaker Chelsea Manning should get clemency ahead of him. Obama commuted Manning’s sentence but took no action on Snowden. 
 
 Snowden's Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, told the state-run news agency last month that his client would like to return to the United States — with no criminal charges hanging over his head. 
 
 "We hope very much that the new U.S. president would show some weighted approach to the issue and make the one and only correct decision — to stop prosecution against Edward Snowden," Kucherena said. 
 
 Zarate said there is no way to predict if Putin will deliver Snowden — or when. 
 
 "I think this is one of those rare cases where the stakes are so high, the diplomatic implications so deep, that anything can happen," he said. 
 
 "So this could be a secret diplomatic deal made in the dead of night, or it could be a weeks-in-formation deal with lawyers on all sides," he said. 
 
 "I think at the end of the day, Moscow holds the cards here." ||||| The whistleblower took to Twitter to say that the NBC report vindicates him of spying charges because ‘no country trades away spies’ 
 
 Snowden claims report Russia may 'gift' him to Trump proves he is not a spy 
 
 Whistleblower Edward Snowden has seized on a report that Russia is considering sending him back to the US as a “gift” to Donald Trump, saying that the story vindicates him of charges that he is a spy. 
 
 “Finally: irrefutable evidence that I never cooperated with Russian intel,” he said on Twitter. “No country trades away spies, as the rest would fear they’re next.” 
 
 Edward Snowden's leave to remain in Russia extended for three years Read more 
 
 Snowden was responding to a report by NBC which stated that US intelligence had collected information that Russia wanted to hand Snowden over in order to “curry favor” with Trump, who has said that the former NSA contractor is a “traitor” and a “spy” who deserves to be executed. 
 
 The report – based on two sources in the intelligence community – said the intelligence had been gathered since Trump’s inauguration. The Guardian was unable to independently verify the report. 
 
 Snowden’s ACLU lawyer, Ben Wizner, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. However, he told NBC News he was unaware of any plan to return his client to the US. 
 
 “Team Snowden has received no such signals and has no new reason for concern,” Wizner said. 
 
 Edward Snowden (@Snowden) Finally: irrefutable evidence that I never cooperated with Russian intel. No country trades away spies, as the rest would fear they're next. https://t.co/YONqZ1gYqm 
 
 Russia granted Snowden asylum in 2013 and a three-year residency in 2014. Snowden has been living in exile in Moscow, facing charges in the US including violations of the US Espionage Act for leaking documents about secret mass surveillance programs. 
 
 Speaking at a GOP candidate debate in March 2016, Trump said of Snowden: “I said he was a spy and we should get him back. And if Russia respected our country, they would have sent him back immediately, but he was a spy. It didn’t take me a long time to figure that one out.” 
 
 The Kremlin publicly dismissed these claims. 
 
 Snowden offered a longer explanation of his feelings of vindication when he was interviewed by Katie Couric in December 2016, when rumours of a Russian handover first started circulating. 
 
 State of surveillance: privacy in Donald Trump's America – tech podcast Read more 
 
 He described the suggestion as vindication that he was“independent”. He added: “The fact that I’ve always worked on behalf of the United States and the fact that Russia doesn’t own me. In fact the Russian government may see me as a sort of liability.” 
 
 Snowden suggested that a reason why Russia might want to return him was his recent criticism of the Kremlin’s human rights record and his suggestions that its officials had hacked US security networks. 
 
 Previously Snowden has said that Moscow had “gone very far, in ways that are completely unnecessary, costly and corrosive to individual and collective rights” in monitoring citizens online. 
 
 When Couric asked if Snowden would mind being extradited, he replied: “That would obviously be something that would be a threat to my liberty and to my life. 
 
 “But what I’m saying here is you can’t have it both ways. You can’t say this guy’s a bad guy – a Russian tool or something like that – at the same time you say he’s going to be traded away.” 
 
 After reiterating his sense of vindication on Friday, Snowden posted again to Twitter: “Speak not because it is safe, but because it is right.” ||||| CBS News has learned that the 35-page dossier compiled by a former British spy is gaining credibility among law enforcement. Before he was sworn in as President, Donald Trump dismissed the document, but sources tell CBS News that investigators continue to vet it to see whether there is any truth to the allegations. 
 
 British diplomat warned John McCain about Russia's Trump intel 
 
 At issue is whether the Russian government gathered compromising information on the president during his years of doing business in country as a private citizen. The FBI is leading the investigation but several intelligence agencies are also involved. Typically an investigation of this scale would involve the sources and methods of the CIA and NSA. CNN first reported the sustained interest in the dossier by the intelligence community. 
 
 The dossier first came to the attention of U.S. officials several months ago, and it took time for it to circulate. A U.S. official familiar with the document’s origin says that even people who discounted it initially have begun to take it more seriously. 
 
 This is in part, government sources say, because of statements candidate Trump was making on the campaign trail. While the Obama administration was denouncing what it alleged were Russian efforts to influence the election through cyber attacks, Mr. Trump praised Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Ultimately, the dossier’s existence was confirmed when it was revealed that FBI Director James Comey briefed then President-elect Trump with a summary of its unsubstantiated allegations. ||||| Washington (CNN) For the first time, US investigators say they have corroborated some of the communications detailed in a 35-page dossier compiled by a former British intelligence agent, multiple current and former US law enforcement and intelligence officials tell CNN. As CNN first reported, then-President-elect Donald Trump and President Barack Obama were briefed on the existence of the dossier prior to Trump's inauguration. 
 
 None of the newly learned information relates to the salacious allegations in the dossier. Rather it relates to conversations between foreign nationals. The dossier details about a dozen conversations between senior Russian officials and other Russian individuals. Sources would not confirm which specific conversations were intercepted or the content of those discussions due to the classified nature of US intelligence collection programs. 
 
 But the intercepts do confirm that some of the conversations described in the dossier took place between the same individuals on the same days and from the same locations as detailed in the dossier, according to the officials. CNN has not confirmed whether any content relates to then-candidate Trump. 
 
 The corroboration, based on intercepted communications, has given US intelligence and law enforcement "greater confidence" in the credibility of some aspects of the dossier as they continue to actively investigate its contents, these sources say. 
 
 Reached for comment this afternoon, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said, "We continue to be disgusted by CNN's fake news reporting." 
 
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– Russia is considering handing over Edward Snowden as a "gift" to "curry favor" with President Trump, an intelligence source tells NBC. The source claims the handover was discussed in intercepted Russian conversations. Trump has repeatedly described the NSA leaker as a "traitor" who deserves harsh punishment, tweeting in 2013 that Snowden is a "spy who should be executed." In July last year, Trump said that if he became president, Putin would return Snowden to the US. Snowden, however, says the report is proof that he isn't a spy, the Guardian reports. "Finally: irrefutable evidence that I never cooperated with Russian intel," he tweeted Friday. "No country trades away spies, as the rest would fear they're next." A Putin spokesman says reports of a Snowden handover are "nonsense," though former deputy national security adviser Juan Zarate tells NBC that such a move would be a "win-win" for Russia. "They've already extracted what they needed from Edward Snowden in terms of information and they've certainly used him to beat the United States over the head in terms of its surveillance and cyber activity," he says. Intelligence sources tell CNN and CBS that intercepted conversations also suggest reports of an explosive Russian dossier on Trump should be taken seriously, though they stress that no proof of "the more salacious things" in the dossier has surfaced. (Last month, Snowden moved a step closer to Russian citizenship.)