Sunday, May 5, 2019

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, the 47-year-old Australian, appeared today before the SPECIFIC COURT extraditing him to the United States on one count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. Extradition became legally possible when Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno nullified Assange’s asylum status on April 11 allowing London’s Metropolitan Police to arrest him within the sovereign Ecuadorian Embassy where he had lived for the past seven years.

Moreno determined Assange was in violation of the non-political action terms of his asylum after it became clear he had continued involvement in the Wikileaks operation. With his asylum in jeopardy, Assange allegedly informed the ambassador he would release Moreno’s personal images, text message, and other materials with a reported push of a button as blackmail. These allegations were credible enough to arrest longtime supporter, Swedish programmer Ola Bini of the Digital Autonomy Center, at Mariscal Sucre International Airport in Quito, Ecuador the same day as an alleged co-conspirator for the blackmail. The files referred to as the INA Papers were released on a dark website sometime after April 11.

Contributing factors nullifying his asylum were embassy employees reporting repeated threats, interference with embassy security, installing surveillance equipment, and neglected his own hygiene disrupting the embassy’s day-to-day operations. Moreno’s only term was Assange would not be extradited to, “a country where he could face torture or the death penalty.”

Today’s hearing in SPECIFIC COURT before Judge NAME O JUDGE was not to determine Assange’s guilt, rather if the level of evidence produced by US prosecutors is substantial enough for meet the dual criminality clause required by the 2003 US-EU Extradition Agreement. JUDGE must determine if the alleged crime(S) happened inside Britain would it meet the requirements for prosecution under their laws.

British, US, and Swedish prosecutors have expressed interest in charging Assange with various conspiracy, espionage, cyber, and sex crimes. Britain’s Westminster Magistrates’ court, with Judge Michael Snow presiding, found Assange guilty of failing to appear before an extradition court where Swedish authorities requested Assange be tried for rape of two women in June 2012 when he sought asylum status. Swedish authorities dropped the charges in 2017 while Assange remaining in asylum with other charges in Britain and the US looming. The Statute of Limitations would allow Swedish authorities to re-issue the rape charges until August of 2020. Sweden may superseded a US extradition if the charges are reissued since they have already proved dual criminality, however the US would pursue his extradition since Sweden resides inside the European Union.

Judge Snow’s April 11th hearing gave the US Department of Justice (DoJ) officials until June 12 to detail all charges and evidence before surrendering Assange. Representing Assange in London is attorney Jennifer Robinson defending her client as a victim of media censorship stating, “[it] sets a dangerous precedent for all media organizations and journalists.”

US District Attorney of Eastern Virginia will be represented by James Hines after submitted formal extradition orders on behalf of the DoJ alleging Assange conspired with then-US Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning starting in 2010 with Wikileaks posting classified US intelligence. A court-martial in 2013 proved Manning provided Wikileaks with approximately 700,000 videos, documents, and other files compromising US intelligence and security. The DoJ indictment of Assange also alleges, “[Assange] agreed to assist Manning in cracking a password stored on United States Defense Department computers.”

The US indictment did not include Wikileak’ publishing emails and other electronic documents from the Democratic National Committee leaders like Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign chair John Podesta. According to the Special Council’s report, Robert Mueller did determine the electronic documents submission to the site were of Russian origin, but was unable to conclude any intentional coordinated release. Another incident of interest is the 2017 releases of US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) hacking capabilities known as the “Vault 7” leak which enlisted an unnamed CIA employee. All could be added once the US gains formal custody.

Barry Pollack will defend Assange within the US commenting on April 11th, “While the indictment against Julian Assange disclosed today charges a conspiracy to commit computer crimes, the factual allegations against Mr. Assange boil down to encouraging a source to provide him information and taking efforts to protect the identity of that source. Journalists around the world should be deeply troubled by these unprecedented criminal charges.”

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