Eric Posner is open to plea bargaining with Edward Snowden:
A trial would surely be an extremely disagreeable experience for the U.S. government. It would be a spectacle, the “trial of the century” (at least for a while). Snowden’s case would attract the country’s top defense lawyers, who know every trick for sabotaging a prosecution. They would argue that the court must permit them to disclose confidential information at the trial so that they could mount an effective defense. They would argue that the government must cough up additional classified information—information that Snowden never got a chance to steal—because such information might bolster Snowden’s defense. All this classified information could show that Snowden’s disclosures did not injure the country, or that he had no reason to believe that his disclosures would help foreign countries, or that government officials engaged in abuses we do not yet know about.
These arguments may not be strong in a strictly legal sense, but that is not the point of them. The point is to persuade the court that matters for the Obama administration—the court of public opinion.
Maybe, but the public’s interest in Snowden appears to be relatively low:
The public at large seems to be saying, “Meh,” despite the intense conversation in Washington and in the media. Per the poll, just 23% say they support what Snowden did, 37% oppose his actions, and a plurality — 39% — say they don’t have an opinion. Folks, that means this story is no longer penetrating the American public.
And, considering that Snowden believes members of the US government want to assassinate him, he’s probably not coming home any time soon.
The Dish 