Peter King: Russians 'Had to Have Access' to Snowden Files

The Russians "had to have access" to the files ex-National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden took when he fled the U.S., including sensitive classified documents, Rep. Peter King told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

"The Russians had to have had access to all he brought over," the New York Republican said Wednesday. "I mean, they can break any type code."

The U.S. must assume the Chinese "have it all, too," King said, because Snowden spent nearly a month in Hong Kong. King said he had no doubt both the Chinese and Russians were "using him."

Snowden left the U.S. last year and started a national debate when he revealed the NSA was collecting telephone data on Americans. He first fled to Hong Kong, and later flew to Russia, where he was granted temporary asylum.

King is a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He called Snowden's actions "treasonous," and suggested the NSA data was only a small part of the documents he took.

It "has been brought out the last few days the information involving the NSA is probably less than 1 percent or 2 percent of the information that Snowden has made available," King said.

Additional information could include "countermeasures that we use to stop IEDs," King said, referring to improvised explosive devices, or homemade bombs. He said the data Snowden could have shared with other countries went "far beyond the NSA."

"The vast amounts of . . . sensitive information, classified, top-secret information involving our military, that has been made available, is really disgraceful," King said.

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