May 24, 2019
Yesterday, the Trump Justice Department brought an 18 count indictment against Julian Assange, charging him under the Espionage Act for his publication of secret and classified information that Chelsea Manning provided to him in 2009 and 2010, (Source: U.S. v. Assange, Crim. No. 1:18-cr-111(CMH), E.D. Va., 5/23/19). This superseding indictment sent a chill through the spine of journalists and First Amendment advocates everywhere, as it represented the first time that the act has been used to prosecute the recipient, rather than the source, of information, (Source: “Assange Indicted Under Espionage Act, Raising First Amendment Issues,” by Charlie Savage, The New York Times, 5/23/19).
The superseding indictment had nothing to do with Assange’s role in hacking the DNC servers during the 2016 election, or with any alleged cooperation with the Russian interference in our election. This prosecution seeks to punish Assange for his role in encouraging Chelsea Manning to provide him with, and then disclosing, scores of government documents that were classified at the SECRET level, defined as information whose “unauthorized disclosure reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage to national security,” (Source: U.S.v. Assange, p.16, par.45). The government highlights Assange’s reckless disregard for the fact that his unredacted disclosure of the leaked information posed “a grave and imminent risk to human life,” (Source: U.S. v. Assange, pp. 11-12). Given the fact that these charges are being brought ten years after the fact, it is hard to credit concern for human life, hardly the hallmark of this administration, as the animating rationale behind this indictment. Continue reading “Hard cases make bad law”