BEDMINSTER, N.J. — President Donald Trump said that he is considering pardoning Edward Snowden, the former U.S. intelligence contractor who leaked highly classified information that the U.S. government was spying on citizens.

“I’m going to take a look at that very strongly,” the president said during a news conference at his private golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

Snowden worked as a former contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA) and has been living in exile in Moscow after fleeing the U.S. six years ago.

Talk of a pardon represents a shift in the president's rhetoric, who has, in the past, referred to Snowden as a "traitor" and "a spy who should be executed," but speculation about a pardon has ramped up in the last week after Trump told the New York Post that "there are a lot of people that think that he is not being treated fairly."

The Post also reported that Trump asked his aides about whether he should allow Snowden to return to the United States.

In 2013, Snowden was charged with violating the Espionage Act; he has said that he will not return to the U.S. as long as he faces those charges.

Human rights groups appealed to Trump's predecessor, President Barack Obama, to pardon Snowden, to no avail.