WikiLeaks has reported that U.S. federal prosecutors are trying to pressure some people to testify against Julian Assange, apparently in connection to the secret yet not-so-secret sealed charges. The Trump administration won't budge on unsealing the charges.
In response, Assange's lawyers have asked the Washington-based Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) for help by filing an urgent application (a 1,172-page submission) with them to force U.S. prosecutors to unseal any secret charges against Assange. The charges are known to exist, as no denial has been made after Assange's name showed up in a copy-paste bungle by U.S. attorneys seeking to seal charges against someone else in 2018.
President Obama's administration looked into charging WikiLeaks for publishing thousands of leaked secret U.S. diplomatic cables and documents about U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. But after looking into WikiLeaks, they concluded the activities of publishing documents is akin to standard journalistic practices that are protected by the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.
President Trump even praised WikiLeaks during his 2016 campaign run after WikiLeaks published leaked DNC documents and Hilary Clinton emails. But after Trump came into office, things took a turn for the worse with respect to WikiLeaks, and Julian Assange.
Former CIA director Mike Pompeo, now the Secretary of State, characterized Wikileaks as a "non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia." The environment feels like there is a target on WikiLeaks, and Julian Assange himself. That's why he's still stuck in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012.
Assange's conditions have gotten worse in 2018, with him being silenced by new embassy draconian protocols imposed on him to try to force him out. He isn't allowed to say anything publicly which the government of Ecuador disagrees with, such as saying anything against it's interest or allies.
Any criticism of the U.K. and U.S. is not allowed, and would get him thrown out and ready for pickup by U.K. authorities "to face contempt of court charges for fleeing British justice", at the very least. He is also likely to be extradited to the U.S. for the alleges security offenses of publishing leaked documents, which other news agencies have done as well, yet they remain free from facing trumped-up legal consequences.
Alexandria, Virgina federal prosecutors who have led investigations into WikiLeaks and Assange for years have refused to comment on the situation. Reuters got a hold of some names of people being contacted by the U.S. government who are being pressured to testify against Assange. One is "Jacob Appelbaum, a Berlin-based U.S. computer expert and hacker", who told Reuters he was offered "broad immunity from prosecution" to cooperate and testify against Assange at a grand jury.
Other contacted by the Justice Department include David House, a Massachusetts computer programmer, and Jason Katz, American activist and computer scientist. Neither responded to requests for comments.
References:
- U.S. prosecutors press witnesses to testify against Assange: WikiLeaks
- Julian Assange launches legal challenge against Trump administration
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