Rep. Rogers: I’d Pay for Snowden’s Ticket Back So He Can Face Charges

GOP Rep. Mike Rogers: I'd Pay for Snowden's Ticket Back to U.S. To Face Charges (RealClearPolitics)

STEPHANOPOULOS: How about this question, about amnesty for Edward Snowden? The senior NSA analyst who is heading the Snowden task force, Rick Legett, we saw him on "60 Minutes" this week saying it should be considered. Take a look.

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RICK LEGETT, NSA ANALYST: So my personal view is, yes, it's worth having a conversation about. I would need assurances that the remainder of the data could be secured. And my bar for those assurances would be very high, it would be more than just an assertion on his part.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: You ready to engage in that conversation?

ROGERS: Listen, I do think he should come home -- I'd personally pay for his plane ticket -- and be held accountable for his actions.

Here's where I think he's crossed the line now, George, he has contacted a foreign country and said, I will sell you classified information for something of value. That's what we call a traitor in this country.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You're talking about his open letter to Brazil?

ROGERS: Absolutely. He has traded something of value for his own personal gain that jeopardizes the national security of the United States. We call that treason. And I think that letter -- I think very clearly lays out who this gentleman is and what his intentions were clearly. And so would I like him to come back? He should come back. He didn't use any of the whistleblower protection avenues laid out before him. None. Zero.

He went to the press. Then He went to the bastion of Internet freedom, China, and then Russia, to lay claim, claims that, by the way, this individual report dominated by law professors just said there was no scandal, no surveillance under the 215 program. All of the things that he's been saying I think been repudiated by this report. All of that I think we need to take into consideration.