Snowden refuses to stand trial despite Eric Holder's claim the whistleblower provided a 'public service'

'I think that he's got to make a decision. He's broken the law in my view.'

When former Central Intelligence Agency employee Edward Snowden illegally leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) concerning global surveillance, the world responded with an uproar - but Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder claims Snowden actually performed a "public service."

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Snowden's whistleblowing revealed the PRISM program, which the NSA used to gain access to private messages across several popular companies including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook and more - all without the company's knowledge or permission.

The information collected by the NSA in secret includes emails, instant messages, contact lists, live streams of users who played Second Life, Xbox Live and World of Warcraft, mapping and locating cell phones, undermining encryption data and using cookies to "pinpoint targets for government hacking..."

Four months after the NSA's surveillance techniques were outed, the United States faced tensions between itself and other allies after the leak revealed the US had been spying on Brazil, Britain, China, France, Germany, Mexico, and Spain.

Though Snowden leaked the documentation three years ago, the repercussions are ongoing, with the United States government undergoing several debates and legal changes in the NSA, as well as other national and international surveillance practices.

"We can certainly argue about the way in which Snowden did what he did, but I think that he actually performed a public service by raising the debate that we engaged in and by the changed that we made, Holder explained on "The Axe Files," a CNN and University of Chicago Institute of Politics podcast.

"Now I would say that doing what he did -- and the way he did it -- was inappropriate and illegal," Holder clarified.

Though he appreciated the results of Snowden's decision to release the information, Holder believes Snowden jeopardized US security interests and compromised international relations.

"He harmed American interests," Holder maintained. "I know there are ways in which certain of our agents were put at risk, relationships with other countries were harmed, our ability to keep the American people safe was compromised. There were all kinds of re-dos that had to be put in place as a result of what he did, and while those things were being done we were blind in certain really critical areas. So what he did was not without consequence."

Since releasing the information, Snowden has lived in exile in Russia and refuses to return to the United States to be tried.

Holder believes Snowden should return to the United States to face the consequences of his actions and explained: "I think he's got to make a decision. He's broken the law in my view. He needs to get lawyers, come on back, and decide, see what he wants to do: Go to trial, try to cut a deal. I think there has to be a consequence for what he has done.

"But I think in deciding what an appropriate sentence should be, I think a judge could take into account the usefulness of having had that national debate."

Snowden spoke at a University of Chicago Institute of Politics event earlier this month and appeared in a video conference to say he was willing to return to America to face the charges but he would only do so if he would receive a fair trial.

"I've already said from the very first moment that if the government was willing to provide a fair trial, if I had access to public interest defenses and other things like that, I would want to come home and make my case to the jury," Snowden stated.

"But, as I think you're quite familiar, the Espionage Act does not permit a public interest defense. You're not allowed to speak the word 'whistleblower' at trial."

Though whistle blowers play an important role in government accountability, Snowden would not be viewed as such in the court system. Fact is fact, the broke the law and would not be protected from criminal charges, regardless of the good that came from his information leak.

In response to Holder's public service comment, Snowden simply took to Twitter to write:

2013: It's treason!
2014: Maybe not, but it was reckless
2015: Still, technically it was unlawful
2016: It was a public service but
2017:

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