Edward Snowden’s dad, Lon Snowden, went on ABC’s This Week on Sunday (along with attorney Bruce Fein) to announce that he has obtained a visa to travel to Russia and plans to visit his son somewhere outside Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport “very soon.” Fein will tag along to “suggest criminal defense attorneys who have experience in criminal espionage act prosecutions,” though the elder Snowden said that he intended to advise his leaker child against accepting a plea deal to return to the United States (not that anyone has offered that.) “At this point, what I would like is for this to be vetted in open court for the American people to have all the facts,” he said, though he complained that “statements made by our leaders” have “poisoned the well, so to speak, in terms of a potential jury pool.” Lon and Fein didn’t have much to say about what Edward has been doing with his newly granted asylum, though Fein said that his Russian lawyer described him as “safe,” “exhausted,” and preparing to “reflect on what he wishes to do going forward.” This has been your Snowden family non-update.
