Snowden deserves credit for NSA reform -- and to stand trial

[Commentary] While signing the USA FREEDOM Act, President Barack Obama raised Congress — and himself. Unacknowledged was the man who can fairly be called the ultimate author of this legislation: former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who has been charged with violating the Espionage Act and is now living in exile in Russia.

Without Snowden's unauthorized disclosures two years ago, neither the public nor many members of Congress would have known that the government, acting under a strained interpretation of the Patriot Act, was vacuuming up and storing millions of Americans' telephone records. That program will end after a six-month transition period under the bill signed by President Obama. If the American people have Snowden to thank for these reforms — and they do — is it fair to prosecute him for violating laws against the release of classified information? A pardon for Snowden now would be premature. But if he were to return to this country to face the charges against him, the fact that he revealed the existence of a program that has now been repudiated by all three branches of government would constitute a strong argument for leniency.

Snowden should come home and make that case.