US President Trump said he would consider amnesty for Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked many classified documents about the government's spy program.

During a press conference on August 15 at Bedminster golf club, New Jersey, US President Donald Trump received a question from reporters whether he would consider pardoning Snowden or not.

Trump said he "doesn't know much" about Snowden's case but will consider it because he has heard convincing arguments in both the amnesty and the non-amnesty.

"A lot of people thought he should be treated differently while many thought he did very bad things," Trump said.

This is a remarkable change for President Trump when during the 2016 election campaign, he also called Snowden a "traitor" deserving of "severe" punishment.

Snowden in 2013 shocked world public opinion when revealing a series of information about the US National Security Agency (NSA) secretly spying, eavesdropping, monitoring email, Internet activities of leaders,

The US administration accused Snowden of threatening national security.