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Biden faces a renewed push, domestically and internationally, to drop charges against Assange, who is languishing in a UK jail:
The Biden administration has been saying all the right things lately about respecting a free and vigorous press, after four years of relentless media-bashing and legal assaults under Donald Trump.
The attorney general, Merrick Garland, has even put in place expanded protections for journalists this fall, saying that "a free and independent press is vital to the functioning of our democracy".
But the biggest test of Biden's commitment remains imprisoned in a jail cell in London, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been held since 2019 while facing prosecution in the United States under the Espionage Act, a century-old statute that has never been used before for publishing classified information.
[...] Now Biden is facing a re-energized push, both inside the United States and overseas, to drop Assange's protracted prosecution.
Five major media organizations that relied on his trove of government secrets, including the Guardian and the New York Times, put out an open letter earlier this month saying that his indictment "sets a dangerous precedent" and threatens to undermine the first amendment.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday December 14 2022, @03:41PM
>It would fit perfectly for him, as Assange was hated by Hillary Clinton.
Why would that increase the odds? Trump was quite friendly with the Clintons until he decided to run for president, and demonizing Hillary became a way to energize his supporters. He even came out shortly after winning the election and publicly admitted that the whole "Lock her up!" thing was just an empty campaign slogan.