Eric Holder, US Attorney General, is ready to negotiate with Snowden

Jan 24, 2014 08:28 GMT  ·  By

Last night, during a live Q&A, Edward Snowden said that he’d be willing to return to the United States if the Whistleblower Protection Act was reformed to include people like himself, who worked in the intelligence community, so he could get a fair trial.

US Attorney General Eric Holder said that Washington was open to negotiations with Snowden’s lawyers if he took responsibility for leaking classified documents that exposed the agency’s vast surveillance operations, MSNBC reports.

According to Holder, if Snowden agrees, the US Department of Justice will engage in conversation. However, the idea of giving him amnesty would be going too far.

“We've always indicated that the notion of clemency isn't something that we were willing to consider. Instead, were he coming back to the US to enter a plea, we would engage with his lawyers,” Holder said.

Once more, Holder refrained from calling Snowden a whistleblower. “I prefer the term defendant. That’s the more apt title,” the Attorney General said.

“Returning to the US, I think, is the best resolution for the government, the public, and myself, but it’s unfortunately not possible in the face of current whistleblower protection laws, which through a failure in law did not cover national security contractors like myself,” Snowden answered a question during a live session.

“The hundred-year old law under which I’ve been charged, which was never intended to be used against people working in the public interest, and forbids a public interest defense. This is especially frustrating, because it means there’s no chance to have a fair trial, and no way I can come home and make my case to a jury,” he also stated.

As mentioned, Snowden said that perhaps when Congress came together to end the mass surveillance programs, such as the metadata collection one, which was named illegal by an independent governmental panel, it would also reform the Whistleblower Protection Act.