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posted by martyb on Friday November 16 2018, @06:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the Big-Ooooops dept.

Inadvertent Court Filing Suggests that the U.S. DoJ is Preparing to Indict Julian Assange

Prosecutors Have Prepared Indictment of Julian Assange, a Filing Reveals

The Justice Department has prepared an indictment against the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, marking a drastic escalation of the government's yearslong battle with him and his anti-secrecy group. It was not clear if prosecutors have filed charges against Mr. Assange. The indictment came to light late Thursday through an unrelated court filing in which prosecutors inadvertently mentioned charges against him. "The court filing was made in error," said Joshua Stueve, a spokesman for the United States attorney's office for the Eastern District of Virginia. "That was not the intended name for this filing."

[...] Seamus Hughes, a terrorism expert at George Washington University who closely tracks court cases, uncovered the filing and posted it on Twitter.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to say on Thursday what led to the inadvertent disclosure. It was made in a recently unsealed filing in an apparently unrelated sex-crimes case charging a man named Seitu Sulayman Kokayi with coercing and enticing an underage person to engage in unlawful sexual activity. Mr. Kokayi was charged in early August, and on Aug. 22, prosecutors filed a three-page document laying out boilerplate arguments for why his case at that time needed to remain sealed.

While the filing started out referencing Mr. Kokayi, federal prosecutors abruptly switched on its second page to discussing the fact that someone named "Assange" had been secretly indicted, and went on to make clear that this person was the subject of significant publicity, lived abroad and would need to be extradited — suggesting that prosecutors had inadvertently pasted text from a similar court filing into the wrong document and then filed it.

"Another procedure short of sealing will not adequately protect the needs of law enforcement at this time because, due to the sophistication of the defendant and the publicity surrounding the case, no other procedure is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged," prosecutors wrote. They added, "The complaint, supporting affidavit, and arrest warrant, as well as this motion and the proposed order, would need to remain sealed until Assange is arrested in connection with the charges in the criminal complaint and can therefore no longer evade or avoid arrest and extradition in this matter."

#Vindicated.

Also at The Guardian, The Washington Post, MarketWatch, and The New Republic.

Previously: Prominent Whistleblowers and Journalists Defend Julian Assange at Online Vigil
Ecuador Reportedly Almost Ready to Hand Julian Assange Over to UK Authorities
DNC Serves WikiLeaks Lawsuit Over Twitter; US Senate Invites Assange to Testify for Russia Probe
The Guardian: Russian Diplomats Planned to Sneak Julian Assange Out of the UK
Julian Assange Sues Ecuador for "Violating His Fundamental Rights"
UK Said Assange Would Not be Extradited If He Leaves Embassy Refuge


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2

 
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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday November 16 2018, @08:21PM (25 children)

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Friday November 16 2018, @08:21PM (#762831) Journal

    It's not known what Assange would be charged with. Charges in relation to the Clinton emails are a good guess, but maybe President Trump's new AG could just sweep the sealed indictment under the rug. Trump did ask for those emails after all.

    If Trump really values loyalty (or at least good service), he ought to pardon Assange after the 2020 elections have concluded. It would be an interesting parallel to Obama's pardoning of Chelsea Manning.

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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by mendax on Friday November 16 2018, @08:36PM (2 children)

    by mendax (2840) on Friday November 16 2018, @08:36PM (#762834)

    It would be an interesting parallel to Obama's pardoning of Chelsea Manning.

    It should be noted that Obama did not pardon Chelsea Manning. He commuted his sentence to time served, and Manning had served a good stretch of time already. He still has a felony conviction that will dog him the rest of his life. Julian Assange does not want to rot away in an American jail or prison at all... and I don't blame him.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 17 2018, @05:39AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 17 2018, @05:39AM (#762974)

      I don't blame him.

      Well, you wouldn't, would you?

      "Assange called himself Mendax—from Horace’s splendide mendax, or “nobly untruthful”—and he established a reputation as a sophisticated programmer who could break into the most secure networks." (The New Yorker [newyorker.com])

      • (Score: 2) by mendax on Saturday November 17 2018, @06:46AM

        by mendax (2840) on Saturday November 17 2018, @06:46AM (#762982)

        Yes, that is true. I found it to be a strange parallel that he and I share the same handle. Fortunately, he and I are different people. I'd hate to be in his shoes at this moment.

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  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @09:06PM (18 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @09:06PM (#762844)

    Trump did ask for those emails after all.

    So? Does a candidate asking for stolen emails somehow make the illegal activities go away? Since the first Russian activity attempting to access HRC's email came after Trump asked for the emails make it a "job for hire"?

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Friday November 16 2018, @09:20PM (17 children)

      by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Friday November 16 2018, @09:20PM (#762848) Journal

      My point was that Trump owes Assange a favor. He's all about loyalty.

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      • (Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Friday November 16 2018, @09:29PM (12 children)

        by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 16 2018, @09:29PM (#762854) Journal

        I don't know that he owes him a favor, but WHAT THE HELL would he be charged with that has a chance of sticking to a foreign reporter?
         
        It would be funny to see the cognitive dissonance all around that a pardon would create though.

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        • (Score: 2, Disagree) by Osamabobama on Friday November 16 2018, @10:47PM (3 children)

          by Osamabobama (5842) on Friday November 16 2018, @10:47PM (#762876)

          WHAT THE HELL would he be charged with ...

          Well, traditionally, that would be rape.

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          • (Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Friday November 16 2018, @11:07PM (1 child)

            by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 16 2018, @11:07PM (#762889) Journal

            That's not a U.S. thing, and was weak sauce anyway.

            --
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            • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Pav on Saturday November 17 2018, @12:18AM

              by Pav (114) on Saturday November 17 2018, @12:18AM (#762907)

              "Sex, lies and Julian Assange" [abc.net.au] was a Four Corners (an Australian investigative news program) report into Assange, Wikileaks and the whole situation surrounding the rape allegations. Assange himself looks like a typical flawed human, but certainly no rapist. The Wikileaks backstory was frankly more interesting.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 17 2018, @04:41AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 17 2018, @04:41AM (#762962)

            Well, traditionally, that would be rape.

            The rape charges were in europe, not the USA. But good call!

        • (Score: 2) by deimtee on Friday November 16 2018, @10:49PM

          by deimtee (3272) on Friday November 16 2018, @10:49PM (#762879) Journal

          I'm sure they could find something. I know of at least two guys who had never been to the USA who were extradited there to face charges. The bloke from 'drink or die' in AU and another in the UK who supposedly hacked into NASA.

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        • (Score: 5, Interesting) by lars on Friday November 16 2018, @11:04PM (6 children)

          by lars (4376) on Friday November 16 2018, @11:04PM (#762886)

          There are logs of chatting with Manning that were leaked. In them he gives Manning instructions on how to hack military computers. Specifically rainbow tables for password hashes IIRC. This takes from from receiving classified information (totally legal), to being part of a conspiracy to take it (very illegal).

          • (Score: 3, Interesting) by RandomFactor on Friday November 16 2018, @11:09PM (5 children)

            by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 16 2018, @11:09PM (#762890) Journal

            Now THAT's one of the most potentially important bits and characteristically ignored. -sigh-

            I'll dig around see if i can find info on it. Thanks :)

            --
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            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 17 2018, @03:10AM (3 children)

              by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 17 2018, @03:10AM (#762932)
              • (Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Saturday November 17 2018, @12:36PM (2 children)

                by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Saturday November 17 2018, @12:36PM (#763069) Journal

                Raw text is always better. Articles try to sanitize important bits.

                Quite possibly they were just using a widely known publicly available cracking/password auditing tool like l0phtcrack.

                --
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                • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 17 2018, @02:08PM (1 child)

                  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 17 2018, @02:08PM (#763091)

                  That's irrelevant. The fact is he went from being a passive receiver to actively advising. That's the line between legality and illegality.

                  • (Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Sunday November 18 2018, @03:49PM

                    by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Sunday November 18 2018, @03:49PM (#763512) Journal

                    No doubt. I didn't mean to imply that. Just speculating that these weren't hacker geniuses, just likely using a common tool available at the time for Lanman hash auditing. Every NT admin of the late 90's ran L0PHT against their domain and got woke when they recovered half the passwords within hours. These guys did have an effect on password policies at least.
                     
                    That doesn't mean that saying "Yeah, we can do ROT13" is not breaking the law (btw you should always use double ROT13, it's twice as secure), just that its a weak PW scheme.

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            • (Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Saturday November 17 2018, @12:16PM

              by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Saturday November 17 2018, @12:16PM (#763062) Journal

              Found some old articles with it:

              In a March 8, 2010, chat, Manning asked Assange for help in cracking a password so he could log onto the classified computer anonymously, Fein said.

              “Any good at IM-Hash cracking?” Manning asks.

              “Yes,” is the reply. “We have rainbow tables for IM,” the interlocutor says, citing a tool that can be used to decipher passwords.

              Manning sends a string of numbers.

              “Passed it on to our guys,” is the reply.

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      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by NewNic on Friday November 16 2018, @11:57PM (3 children)

        by NewNic (6420) on Friday November 16 2018, @11:57PM (#762905) Journal

        He's all about loyalty.

        You don't really read the news, do you?

        Trump is all about loyalty, but only loyalty to him. In Trump's mind, it doesn't flow the other way: there is no quid pro quo that Trump feels obligated to honour.

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        • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 17 2018, @03:22AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 17 2018, @03:22AM (#762935)

          As someone who has had to deal with a couple of people diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder (and because of that experience can see trump's disorder plain as day) its not that trump believes in loyalty, he believes in whatever he can say to make people do what he wants. Which is textbook NPD logic.

          My learning about the NPD of people in my family just happens to have coincided with the election of trump, before that I was just as ignorant and naive as anybody else about how utterly foreign NPD thought processes are. I think this country would be 1000x better off if more people understood NPD - and not just for understanding trump, but all kinds of other malignant actors in our daily lives too because once you know how they think so many "odd" behaviors by people in general make so much more sense. If anyone wants to go down that rabbit hole, you can start by googling "narcissistic parents" other useful concepts to google - DARVO, "golden child and scapegoat" (ivanka is the classic golden child) and especially "gaslighting" which is the #1 tool of narcissists.

          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday November 17 2018, @06:00PM

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Saturday November 17 2018, @06:00PM (#763161) Journal

            I was just as ignorant and naive as anybody else about how utterly foreign NPD thought processes are.

            If you're human, you're not so ignorant and naive as you think. Many of these disorders are merely normal human thinking with enough dysfunction tossed in that it counts as a mental illness.

        • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday November 17 2018, @07:13AM

          by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Saturday November 17 2018, @07:13AM (#762988) Journal
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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday November 16 2018, @10:40PM (2 children)

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Friday November 16 2018, @10:40PM (#762872) Homepage

    Obama pardoned Chelsea Manning because muh tranny rather than for doing the right thing and jailing and continuing the torture of a tranny is bad optics for Leftists. And, while I used to be pro-Manning, I now believe that he did it almost entirely because he had an axe to grind because the Army douchebags were picking on him all the time and he wanted to "stick it to the man." Still, he did a good thing for all of us.

    And now I'm rubbing my hands together like a filthy Jew because my "free Bradley Manning" poster I got from a march will become a valuable collector's item and I will someday receive lots of sheckels for it.

    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @10:48PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 16 2018, @10:48PM (#762878)

      I saw this movie before. "The return of the stupid to the basement of chastity."

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 17 2018, @03:27AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 17 2018, @03:27AM (#762936)

        Mama is very Proud of her Boy, soon he'll get to live in the broom closet.