U.S. ramping up probe against Julian Assange, WikiLeaks says
Federal prosecutors have formally
approached people in the U.S., Germany and Iceland and pressed them to testify
against Assange, according to WikiLeaks.
NBC News, Jan. 23, 2019, 4:10 PM
GMT+1
By Ken Dilanian
American federal prosecutors have been
pressing witnesses in the U.S. and abroad to testify against WikiLeaks founder
Julian Assange, WikiLeaks says, offering further evidence that the Justice
Department is building a criminal case against the man
who leaked Democratic emails hacked by the Russians in the 2016 election.
In a new submission to the Inter-American
Commission of Human Rights, based in Washington, WikiLeaks is urging the
Justice Department to unseal the charges that appear to have been secretly filed against Assange in the Eastern
District of Virginia. A mistake in a Justice Department court filing
in November inadvertently suggested the existence of those charges.
"The submission reveals for the first
time that U.S. federal prosecutors have in the last few months formally
approached people in the United States, Germany and Iceland and pressed them to
testify against Mr. Assange in return for immunity from prosecution,"
WikiLeaks said in a statement. "Those approached are associated with
WikiLeaks' joint publications with other media about U.S. diplomacy, Guantanamo
Bay and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."NOV. 17, 201801:32
The statement also suggests that the U.S.
has been working with Ecuador to monitor Assange in his residence in exile at
the Ecuadorian embassy in London, an assertion that former intelligence
officials say is plausible. In 2017, then-CIA director Mike Pompeo declared
WikiLeaks a "hostile intelligence service."
A Justice Department spokesperson declined
to comment, and an American lawyer for Assange referred NBC News to a lawyer in
London, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The statement makes no mention of
WikiLeaks' role in leaking Democratic emails that had been hacked by Russian
intelligence officers as part of an effort to help Donald Trump win the 2016
presidential election.
Special counsel Robert Mueller is
investigating the role played by WikiLeaks in that matter, court documents
show, though the investigation in Virginia goes back to 2010, well before the
Russian election interference campaign.
A lawyer for Reporters Committee for Freedom
of the Press, which is fighting to have the Virginia case unsealed, said the
secrecy around the case deprives the public of knowing whether it presents any
First Amendment concerns.
"Whether the charges against Mr.
Assange are made public by the district court in response to the Reporters
Committee's motion, or whether they are made public as a result of separate
actions being taken by Mr. Assange on his own behalf, we think the public will
benefit from knowing what those charges are," said Katie Townsend, the
group's legal director.
The WikiLeaks statement seeks to portray
the anti-secrecy group as a journalistic organization, and raises the specter
that the Trump administration is seeking to prosecute journalists for reporting
on classified information.
"The Trump Administration … is clearly
intent on using the prosecution of Julian Assange as an 'icebreaker' to set a
dangerous precedent that would enable the prosecution of most serious media
organizations, such as The New York Times, the Washington Post, AP, CNN and NBC
which routinely obtain and publish information from classified sources,"
the statement says.
But many legal experts believe any
prosecution of Assange would have to be predicated on evidence that he induced
people to break the law by providing WikiLeaks with classified information.
There are also longtime suspicions that WikiLeaks has been working closely with
Russian intelligence.
The New York Times reported in 2016 that
WikiLeaks disclosures often have benefited Russia at the expense of the West,
and that WikiLeaks has not made any major disclosures that have spotlighted
Russia's foibles.
The WikiLeaks twitter account, widely
believed to be controlled by Assange, corresponded in 2016 with Donald Trump
Jr., according to messages that have become public.
On Oct. 3, 2016, WikiLeaks wrote to Trump
Jr.: "Hiya, it'd be great if you guys could comment on/push this
story," attaching a quote from then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton
about wanting to "just drone" Assange, according to messages made
public by The Atlantic.
"Already did that earlier today,"
Trump Jr. responded an hour-and-a-half later. "It's amazing what she can
get away with."
Trump Jr.'s lawyer said he did nothing
wrong.
Ken Dilanian is a national security reporter for the NBC
News Investigative Unit.
Michele Neubert and
Rich Schapiro contributed.
(https://www.nbcnews.com)
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