Edward Snowden is willing to go to jail as part of a plea deal, he said, but has not received an answer from the U.S. government on the offer, according to CNN.
Snowden was a National Security Agency contractor and is infamous for leaking documents containing classified information about the NSA's surveillance practices and other insider data. He has been in exile in Russia since 2013, but says he would come back to the U.S. to serve jail time if he could get an answer on the subject.
"I've volunteered to go to prison with the government many times. What I won't do is I won't serve as a deterrent to people trying to do the right thing in difficult situations," he said.
Snowden is a wanted criminal under the Espionage Act, according to International Business Times. If he returns to U.S. soil without making some sort of plea deal with the government, he could be tried under this Act. That means he would not get a jury trial and may be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison.
Some credit Snowden with sparking a national debate about the NSA and the right to privacy for American citizens, according to the Guardian.
