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U.S. Justice Department Considering Charges Against Julian Assange

posted by martyb on Saturday April 22 2017, @07:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the no-surprise dept.

takyon writes:

U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors may bring charges against WikiLeaks and Julian Assange soon:

Two media reports say U.S. prosecutors are preparing or closely considering charges against the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, including its founder Julian Assange, for revealing sensitive government secrets. CNN (http://cnn.it/2pINsBT) reported Thursday that authorities are preparing to seek Assange's arrest. The Washington Post (http://wapo.st/2pJgy4k) reported prosecutors are weighing charges against the organization's members after the Obama-era Justice Department declined to do so.

Possible charges include conspiracy, theft of government property and violating the Espionage Act, the newspaper said, though any charges would need approval from high-ranking officials in the Justice Department. The move comes after WikiLeaks last month released nearly 8,000 documents that it says reveal secrets about the CIA's cyberespionage tools for breaking into computers, cellphones and even smart TVs. It previously published 250,000 State Department cables and embarrassed the U.S. military with hundreds of thousands of logs from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Also at BBC, DW.

Previously: WikiLeaks Says It Has Obtained Trove of CIA Hacking Tools
Wikileaks and CIA Hacking Tools -- Security Firms Assess Impact as Tech Companies Offered Access
Cisco Reports Bug Disclosed in WikiLeaks' Vault 7 CIA Dump
Wikileaks Releases Code That Could Unmask CIA Hacking Operations
CIA Director Mike Pompeo Calls WikiLeaks a "Non-State Hostile Intelligence Service"

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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Saturday April 22 2017, @03:14PM (4 children)

    by Thexalon (636) on Saturday April 22 2017, @03:14PM (#497938)

    So...it turns out that Assange was right: The US does want to prosecute him. Which makes it likely that there was some understanding between the US and the EU about extraditing him, if only he would leave that pesky embassy.

    There have been at various times congressmen calling for him to be shot, and the UK has said that they will violate diplomatic protocols if Assange tries to leave that embassy, and the Swedish authorities have consistently refused to even talk to him about their alleged criminal case without having him in physical custody. That was among the evidence Assange's defenders cited that convinced a UN panel that he was being held under house arrest illegally.

    And for those laboring under the delusion that the Clinton administration would never have done such a thing, well, consider that Clinton strategist Bob Beckel said "a dead guy can't leak stuff [twitter.com]".

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @05:25PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @05:25PM (#497981)

    And for those laboring under the delusion that the Clinton administration would never have done such a thing, well, consider that Clinton strategist Bob Beckel said "a dead guy can't leak stuff".

    Hey, thanks for providing an example of wikileaks straight-up lying.
    Its not the first time, but its a really straight-forward case.
    Bob Beckel was never a clinton strategist. He's just some dumbass on tv in 2010.
    Not only was that fact mentioned within minutes in the response to wikileaks's own tweet, but snopes looked into it too:

    http://www.snopes.com/bob-beckel-julian-assange/ [snopes.com]

    • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @07:33PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @07:33PM (#498034)

      Snopes is a known biased source! They have no credibility! #fakenews #MAGA

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @09:31PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @09:31PM (#498073)

        Hi, Donald! Shouldn't you be running the country right now?

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 25 2017, @07:52AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 25 2017, @07:52AM (#499182)

          Please, stop giving him ideas.