Relations between WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange and the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, which housed him, deteriorated over the past few months. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin acolytes began to warn that any American indictment of Assange would provide future precedent for the government to go after legitimate news organizations for publishing classified information.
Just hours after U.K. police arrested Assange, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia announced that Assange faces a federal charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, related to Chelsea Manning’s diplomatic cables leak, not the 2016 DNC leaks.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office alleges:
As a result, Assange is charged with “knowingly” and “intentionally” accessing a computer in violation of criminal law. He faces up to five years in prison if found guilty, following his anticipated extradition to the United States.
The indictment is about as legally sound as the most ardent defenders of the Fourth Estate could hope for. Not one line of the indictment insinuates that Assange’s legal troubles stem simply from posting classified material. Rather, the whole case is based on his actively participating in computer fraud.
Journalists do not have an absolute right to post classified information, but there are protections in Supreme Court precedent, to which both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama consistently bowed. Those protections do not, however, apply to those who actually steal top secret information. If the facts stated are indeed correct, the government isn’t not even remotely violating press freedoms.
Still, the usual suspects will try to convince you otherwise.
The DOJ says part of what Assange did to justify his prosecution – beyond allegedly helping Manning get the documents – is he encouraged Manning to get more docs for him to publish. Journalists do this with sources constantly: it’s the criminalization of journalism pic.twitter.com/GXNjWlkFZw
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 11, 2019
Images of Ecuador’s ambassador inviting the UK’s secret police into the embassy to drag a publisher of–like it or not–award-winning journalism out of the building are going to end up in the history books. Assange’s critics may cheer, but this is a dark moment for press freedom. https://t.co/ys1AIdh2FP
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) April 11, 2019
Regardless of the personal evils of Julian Assange, no American should want the government trampling the free press to go after enemies. Thankfully, this indictment comes nowhere close to corrupting the First Amendment or legal precedent. Patriots everywhere can rest easy.
[WATCH: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange dragged out of Ecuadorian Embassy in London by police]
