Why US is chasing a Whistleblower the way it does?

Not long ago Obama administration claimed that the whistleblowers are so important to our democracy that it will protect any of them if they expose any dirt on the big corporations. Now, when a whistleblower exposes a dirt on our Big Government those promises do not apply. Now, he is a big time TRAITOR (reminder: nobody was hurt by his actions).

• Where is the transparency? (Papers filed by the DOJ against Snowden were SEALED.) 
• What are they afraid of? 
• What are they hiding? (What else was he going to expose?)
• Since when is it criminal to expose that the government is braking the law? Is anybody from NSA going to jail?