Former US attorney general Eric Holder has said that two years after he leaked documents exposing the mass-collection of communication data by the National Security Agency (NSA) in the US and the UK's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Edward Snowden may return to the US.

"We are in a different place as a result of the Snowden disclosures... his actions spurred a necessary debate," Mr Holder told Yahoo News.

He continued, “I certainly think there could be a basis for a resolution that everybody could ultimately be satisfied with.”

HBO's Last Week Tonight recently interviewed Snowden in Moscow

In the wake of the interview the US Justice Department has clarified that Edward Snowden would face criminal prosecution if he tried to return to the country.

After he fled the US he was granted asylum in Russia - where he remains today. Mr Snowden is waiting on asylum decisions from 21 different countries, but his lawyers have said that his preferred choice would be to return to the US.

Last month the Senate in Washington passed a bill to end the government's bulk collection of phone records in a move which campaigners argue vindicated Snowden's leaks.

In 2014 independent and White House-funded terror prevention studies found that the NSA's collection of communication meta data had no impact of the prevention of terror attacks.