Wikileaks Founder Charged

Finally, someone is charged with conspiracy. It is not who the Left thought it would be. It is Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange. There are 18 counts against him by the Grand Jury. The Department of Justice issued a Press Release which included a downloadable indictment for the public to view. In it is the following: “The primary purpose of the conspiracy was to facilitate Manning’s acquisition and transmission of classified information related to national defense of the United States so that Wikileaks could publicly disseminate the information.”

“If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on each count except for conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, for which he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.” The boisterous debate is extremely loud currently. Topics in the debate range from “This is an attack on Journalism. Assange is a publisher, Manning is a “whistleblower”. Leakers are being held accountable, Publishers cannot conspire with anyone to get information illegally, President Trump is/isn’t working with Assange.” The facts are this, classified information was transmitted to Wikileaks. It was published.

Twitterverse is Aflutter

WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Charged in 18-Count Superseding Indictment https://t.co/N1rfnPHs3l — Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept) May 23, 2019 Archive.is

Assange indictment is a reminder that there is no media exception to laws against illegal dissemination of classified material. Recall @NYTimes and @washingtonpost made use of illegally leaked classified info to get @realDonaldTrump. Will media be criminally investigated? https://t.co/efbmjP1I1b — Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) May 23, 2019 Archive.is

The Justice Department tweeted the Press Release, which prompted Tom Fitton from Judicial Watch to raise a great question. “Will media be criminally charged?” This adds to the debate. What is the role of a publisher? Is the publisher liable for disbursing illegally obtained material? According President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Guiliani, the answer is no. In the case of Assange, the indictment alleges that he personally conspired to commit a crime, attempted to hack a computer via password attempts, abusing administrative level access to a file.

Julian Assange Supporters in a Frenzy

Julian Assange supporters claim the indictment is an assault on journalism. Wikileaks as well as Edward Snowden posted their disapproval of the charges. For those who do not know, Snowden leaked NSA information in 2013 when he was a CIA contractor. To avoid arrest, he sought asylum and is living in Russia now. Wikipedia calls him a “whistleblower.” He never faced the charges against him of violating the Espionage Act. Just for fun, notice the use of the same picture in the two tweets?

This is madness. It is the end of national security journalism and the first amendment. https://t.co/wlhsmsenFw — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) May 23, 2019 Archive.is

The Department of Justice just declared war––not on Wikileaks, but on journalism itself. This is no longer about Julian Assange: This case will decide the future of media. https://t.co/a5WHmTCDpg — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) May 23, 2019 Archive.is

Indicted on Espionage?

Pay close attention to the last sentence in the Press Release: “An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.”