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WASHINGTON â Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said Thursday that the United States was willing to discuss how the criminal case against Edward J. Snowden would be handled, but only if Mr. Snowden pleaded guilty first.
Mr. Holder, speaking at a question-and-answer event at the University of Virginia, did not specify the guilty pleas the Justice Department would expect before it would open talks with Mr. Snowdenâs lawyers. And the attorney general reiterated that the United States was not willing to offer clemency to Mr. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who has leaked documents that American officials have said threaten national security.
âInstead,â Mr. Holder said in response to a question at the universityâs Miller Center, âwere he coming back to the U.S. to enter a plea, we would engage with his lawyers.â
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Calls for clemency for Mr. Snowden, who has taken refuge in Moscow, have increased in the last several months as some civil liberties groups and prominent news organizations, including an editorial in The New York Times, have asked the government to consider such a move.
That argument has gained momentum with recent moves to curtail the programs that Mr. Snowden revealed. President Obama this month embraced some calls to overhaul certain N.S.A. activities brought to light by Mr. Snowden. In particular, Mr. Obama said that he would impose greater court oversight on the once-secret program in which the agency has been collecting records of every Americanâs phone calls, and that he intended to eventually get the N.S.A. out of the business of gathering such records in bulk.
âI absolutely think the tide has changed for Snowden,â Jesselyn Radack, a legal adviser to Mr. Snowden and a lawyer with the Government Accountability Project, said last month. âAll of these things taken together counsel in favor of some sort of amnesty or pardon.â
Mr. Holder ruled out that possibility on Thursday. âWeâve always indicated that the notion of clemency isnât something that we were willing to consider,â he said, adding that any discussions with Mr. Snowdenâs lawyers would be the âsame with any defendant who wanted to enter a plea of guilty.â
Some lawmakers have also softened their stance on how Mr. Snowdenâs case should be handled. âI donât think Edward Snowden deserves a death penalty or life in prison; I think thatâs inappropriate, and I think thatâs why he fled, because thatâs what he faced,â Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, has said.
âI think, really, in the end,â Mr. Paul added, âhistoryâs going to judge that he revealed great abuses of our government and great abuses of our intelligence communityâ by exposing the broad sweep of electronic surveillance by the N.S.A.
Mr. Paul said he favored âa fair trial with a reasonable sentence.â
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, has gone even further, suggesting that the United States offer Mr. Snowden a plea bargain or some form of clemency. But Mr. Schumer said that if Mr. Snowden considered himself part of the âgrand tradition of civil disobedience in this country,â he should return to stand trial. Such a legal proceeding, the senator said, could be enlightening for the country.
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