Fox News contributor Alan Dershowitz Alan Morton DershowitzThe Hill's 12:30 Report: War over the Supreme Court Dershowitz suing CNN for 0 million in defamation suit Bannon and Maxwell cases display DOJ press strategy chutzpah MORE predicted in a new interview that the Trump administration would be unable to secure the legal extradition of Julian Assange Julian Paul AssangePsychiatrist says Assange told him he was hearing imaginary voices, music Assange extradition hearing delayed over coronavirus concerns The Intercept's Glenn Greenwald discusses U.S. case against Assange MORE from the U.K. to force the Wikileaks founder to face charges under the Espionage Act.

In an interview with AM 970 "The Answer" in New York, Dershowitz said that it would be unlikely to see Assange ever face charges for his role in the publication of classified materials leaked by Chelsea Manning Chelsea Elizabeth ManningHistory is on Edward Snowden's side: Now it's time to give him a full pardon Hillicon Valley: Justice Department announces superseding indictment against WikiLeaks' Assange | Facebook ad boycott gains momentum | FBI sees spike in coronavirus-related cyber threats | Boston city government bans facial recognition technology Justice Department announces superseding indictment against Wikileaks' Assange MORE that detailed U.S. military operations in the Middle East.

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"I think the Trump administration has overplayed its hand," the Harvard law professor told host John Catsimatidis. "They had a very strong case for extradition when they initially accused him...breaking in to a password[-protected machine] and stealing materials, that's a crime."

"But publishing materials? That's The New York Times and The Washington Post, and I think Great Britain is going to have a lot of difficulty extraditing Assange to the U.S. to face trial for merely publishing information stolen not by him but by others," he added.

Assange was arrested last month by British authorities after spending years in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to evade charges he faced in Sweden for sexual assault and now in the U.S. related to his publication of stolen materials at Wikileaks.

A U.N. torture expert who recently visited Assange in British prison said that the Wikileaks founder showed signs of having been psychologically tortured, and warned that he would face a "show trial" if extradited to the U.S.

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“Our finding was that Mr. Assange shows all the symptoms of a person who has been exposed to psychological torture for a prolonged period of time. The psychiatrist who accompanied my mission said that his state of health was critical,” Nils Melzer told Reuters this week.

“I am seriously, gravely concerned that if this man were to be extradited to the United States, he would be exposed to a politicized show trial and grave violations of his human rights,” he added.