U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) announced yesterday that he’s joined Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and a bipartisan coalition to urge President Biden to drop the prosecution of Julian Assange, founder and publisher of WikiLeaks which in 2010 published a series of leaks (war logs, diplomatic cables) provided by former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.
Assange (who is currently detained in prison in the UK after Ecuador revoked his asylum) was charged in 2019 by the U.S. government with 18 criminal charges including violating the Espionage Act of 1917.
With the photo (below) of Assange holding a handwritten sign that reads ‘Keep Fighting,’ Senator Paul wrote this week: “The US shouldn’t pursue an unnecessary prosecution that risks criminalizing journalism and chilling freedom of the press.”
Proud to join @RepThomasMassie and a bipartisan coalition urging @POTUS to drop the prosecution of Julian Assange. The US shouldn’t pursue an unnecessary prosecution that risks criminalizing journalism and chilling freedom of the press. https://t.co/BdS3eNWK5l
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 20, 2023
Note: During the eight years of the Obama Administration (when Biden was Vice President), the Department of Justice did not indict Assange because it “could not find evidence that his actions differed from those of a journalist” and “would pose serious threats to press freedom.”
It was in 2017, at the beginning of the Trump administration, when then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo (who later became Secretary of State) and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, according to the New York Times, “unleashed an aggressive campaign against Mr. Assange, reversing an Obama-era view of WikiLeaks as a journalistic entity.”
In April 2019, The New York Times‘ Editorial Board warned that the Trump administration “has begun well by charging Mr. Assange with an indisputable crime. But there is always a risk with this administration — one that labels the free press as ‘the enemy of the people’ — that the prosecution of Mr. Assange could become an assault on the First Amendment and whistle-blowers.”
When Trump had the opportunity to pardon Assange in 2021 but chose not to, Rep. Massie wrote on Twitter: “The omission of Snowden, Assange, and Ulbricht, from the pardons and commutations list speaks volumes. The President went 0 for 3 in his final round with the swamp.”
Assange’s ‘final’ appeal against U.S. extradition from Britain will be held in London’s High Court in February 2024. The two-day hearing is scheduled for Feb. 20-21. If extradited to the U.S., Assange faces life in prison.
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