but a guilty plea to some sort of prison time would seem indispensable in the deal. >> and snowden seems to suggest, in the answer that he gave to me on the online chat, that the law would have to be changed, extending whistle blower protections to contractors such as him before he could consider coming back to the united states because there wouldn't be any protections for him. >> well, jake, just do a little mind experiment that as difficult as it is to get anything through congress today, the justice for snowden act is not going to be a priority. they are not going to initiate the law to begin conversations with snowden. now, that still leaves some room for negotiations under existing law but to be remotely realistic, he's going to have to plea or not plea or stay in