WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faces extradition to United States

Thursday, May 30, 2019

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, the 47-year-old Australian, appeared today before the United Kingdom 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 11th 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 digital media with a reported push of a button as blackmail. 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.”

The UK’s Westminster Magistrates Court’s Judge Michael Snow on April 11th via closed circuit video conference from Belmarsh Prison entering a plea of not guilty for failing to appear before extradition court. Swedish authorities requested Assange be extradited and tried for rape of two women in June 2012 going instead seeking sought asylum status violating the terms of his bail which were dropped in 2017 but maybe reissued before August 2020 under the Swedish Statute of Limitations.

Snow informed Assange he could consent to the US extradition request when he replied, “I do not wish to surrender myself for extradition for doing journalism that has won many awards and protected many people.” Assange was found guilty of the bail violation and a hearing was held May 1st before Judge Deborah Taylor at the Southwark Crown Court sentencing him to 50-weeks of prison.

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) officials until June 12 to detail all charges and evidence before surrendering Assange. US District Attorney of Eastern Virginia is represented by James Hines who submitted the formal extradition orders 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 Wikileaks publishing emails and other electronic documents from the Democratic National Committee leaders like Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign chair John Podesta. Robert Mueller’s Special Council Report did determine the electronic documents submitted by a Russian entity with the goal of meddling in the 2016 United States presidential election, but was unable to conclude any intentional coordinated release with domestic campaigns. 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.

Today’s hearing in SPECIFIC COURT before Judge NAME O JUDGE was not to determine Assange’s guilt, rather if the level of evidence provided by US prosecutors was substantial enough for 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.

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