SurveillanceSnowden ready to return to U.S. for “fair trial”
Edward Snowden has told friends and supporters he was ready to return to the United States if he could be guaranteed a fair trial. Snowden said his representatives had approached the U.S. Justice Department in an effort to negotiate a plea deal, even one involving him spending time in jail. He told the BBC Panorama last year, however, that the Justice Department had made no effort to respond.
Edward Snowden has told friends and supporters he was ready to return to the United States if he could be guaranteed a fair trial.
The Hill reports that the former NSA contractor said he would argue that his leaking of thousands of secret documents was done in the public interest. “I’ve told the government I would return if they would guarantee a fair trial where I can make a public interest defense of why this was done and allow a jury to decide,” Snowden told the New Hampshire Liberty Forum, a libertarian organization.
Snowden faces charges under the Espionage Act that could send him to prison for up to thirty years.
Snowden flew to Hong Kong in May 2013, and a month later revealed thousands of classified NSA documents. He then travelled to Russia, where he was granted asylum.
Snowden claimed that the documents he stole from the NSA were encrypted, but Western intelligence services have concluded that both Chinese and Russian intelligence have gained full access to the documents he carried on his laptop, whether or not he cooperated with them.
The documents, among other things, revealed the NSA program to collect the metadata of Americans’ communications.
Snowden said his representatives had approached the U.S. Justice Department in an effort to negotiate a plea deal, even one involving him spending time in jail. He told the BBC Panorama last year, however, that the Justice Department had made no effort to respond.
