and lawsuits are threatening, including the aclu challenging the constitutionality of the phone program. suspected leaker edward snowden says he wants that debate. >> the public needs to decide whether these programs or policies are right or wrong and i'm willing to go on the record to defend the authenticity of them and say i didn't change these. i didn't modify the story. this is the truth. this is what's happening. you should decide whether we need to be doing this. >> reporter: while a law enforcement official says there's no time frame for when charges will be filed legal experts the most likely charge is unauthorized disclosure of classified information under the espionage act. >> there's one felony that clearly applies the disclosure felony which has a ten-year max. so you can stack those up all you want but under the sentencing guidelines basically he's looking at ten years. >> a lot of legal authorities say that if and when charges against snowden have been presented before a magistrate,