Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, warned that the Justice Department’s indictment unsealed Thursday against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would have repercussions for “every American.”
“I think what’s happening here is, unfortunately, it is some form of retaliation coming from the government saying, ‘Hey, this is what happens when you release information that we don’t want you to release,’” said Gabbard, who is running in the 2020 Democratic primary for president, during an interview with CNN on Thursday.
“And I think that’s why this is such a dangerous and slippery slope, not only for journalists, not only for those in the media, but also for every American that our government can and has the power to kind of lay down the hammer to say, ‘Be careful, be quiet, and fall in line; otherwise, we have the means to come after you,’” she said.
Earlier Thursday, Assange was arrested in London after Ecuador withdrew his asylum claim. He had been staying at Ecuador’s embassy in London since 2012. The Justice Department also unsealed an indictment from March 2018 on Thursday and federal officials claimed he could receive up to five years behind bars for his role in “one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States.”
He was charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for assisting former Army intelligence specialist Chelsea Manning in cracking a password to a Department of Defense computer in 2010 so she could use another username to access secret government documents. Manning was convicted in 2013 for violating the Espionage Act after she provided thousands of national security documents to WikiLeaks.
Assange has also come under scrutiny after WikiLeaks released thousands of emails obtained from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta. The U.S. intelligence community determined with “high confidence” in 2017 that WikiLeaks was used to publish information to help elect President Trump, although WikiLeaks has denied that this was the case.
Meanwhile, other lawmakers praised Assange’s arrest and indictment. For example, Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., argued Assange was “never” a hero.
“I’m glad to see the wheels of justice are finally turning when it comes to Julian Assange. In my book, he has NEVER been a hero. His actions – releasing classified information – put our troops at risk and jeopardized the lives of those who helped us in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he tweeted.
