SAO PAULO — President Dilma Rousseff said Wednesday that she would not comment on the letter written by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden in which he said he was willing to help Brazil investigate NSA spying on its soil but could only do so if granted political asylum.
At a press conference in Brasilia, Rousseff said the government had not received any formal request ‘‘and so I give myself the right to not manifest myself on something that was not sent.’’
‘‘I received nothing, I was asked nothing,’’ she said.
Earlier, the president of Brazil’s Senate Foreign Relations and Defense Committee urged his country to grant political asylum to Snowden.
An aide to Senator Ricardo Ferraco said the senator wants to meet with Foreign Minister Luiz Alberto Figueiredo to ‘‘request that Snowden be given asylum.’’
The aide did not give further details.
On Tuesday, the newspaper published Snowden’s ‘‘open letter to the people of Brazil’’ in which Snowden wrote that he’s willing to help Brazil investigate NSA spying on its soil but could only do so if granted political asylum because the US ‘‘government will continue to interfere with my ability to speak.’’