New York Times editor Jill Abramson confirmed this weekend that UK officials had tried to convince her to hand over secret documents, which had been leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, after they found out the Times was working with the Guardian newspaper to sift through the materials.

Abramson told the Guardian she was approached by the UK embassy in Washington directly following the announcement that the Times was collaborating with the Guardian on the story, which included embarrassing revelations of the UK’s GCHQ and their involvement in the global data mining and dragnet surveillance tactics of the NSA.

“They were hopeful that we would relinquish any material that we might be reporting on, relating to Edward Snowden. Needless to say I considered what they told me, and said no,” Abramson told the Guardian.