A group of House Democrats sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland urging the Biden administration to drop the charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is facing up to 175 years in prison for exposing US war crimes if extradited to the US and convicted.
The letter was led by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and also signed by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Cori Bush (D-MO), and Greg Casar (D-TX).
Tuesday marked four years since Assange was dragged out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and sent to Belmarsh prison, where he is still being held today on no charges. “Four years ago today, Julian Assange was arrested for publishing the truth,” Tlaib wrote on Twitter.
“I’m leading a letter to Attorney General Garland urging him to uphold the freedom of the press by dropping these Trump-era charges and withdrawing the extradition request,” she added.
The letter reads: “We write you today to call on you to uphold the First Amendment’s protections for the freedom of the press by dropping the criminal charges against Australian publisher Julian Assange and withdrawing the American extradition request currently pending with the British government.”
Assange has been indicted for publishing information about the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that he obtained using standard journalistic practices. If Assange is convicted, it would set a dangerous precedent and could lead to more charges against media outlets for publishing information the US government doesn’t want to be exposed.
The lawmakers point out that much of the information published by WikiLeaks was also published by mainstream outlets, including The New York Times and The Washington Post. “Based on the legal logic of this indictment, any of those newspapers could be prosecuted for engaging in these reporting activities,” they said.
The letter concludes: “Every day that the prosecution of Julian Assange continues is another day that our own government needlessly undermines our own moral authority abroad and rolls back the freedom of the press under the First Amendment at home. We urge you to immediately drop these Trump-era charges against Mr. Assange and halt this dangerous prosecution.”
“Trump-era charges”. They lie so easily. The charges are from Obama’s time. Obama prosecuted more whistle blowers than anyone before him. But they’d never write Obama-era charges, as leftists always lie. When the big media side with them they know they will never be called on it.
The dearth of co-signers doesn’t bode well.
7 people? That’s it?
Thanks ikester8, for making me laugh out loud!!!
Eight now.
The Magnificent 7.
Greenwald shares Assange gave WaPo the documents to look at and it was they who actually published the stuff.
That was Snowden. The NYT got it wrong claiming that Snowden released to wikileaks
Biden is a war criminal so are Trump, Obama, Bush & Blair. They should be prosecuted & spend the rest of their lives at the ICC. Assange should go free. If Assange were free, he could report on the atrocities Ukraine is committing in its’ war against Russia.
Truman was for authorizing the use of nuclear weapons on Japan. For nearly a year prior to the dropping of the bombs, Japan had been negotiating with U.S. to end the war. The sticking point for Japan was retaining Hirohito as Emperor. We wanted unconditional surrender. At the conclusion of the war, Hirohito was retained. The Japanese citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were part of the field test of our new toys. With authorizing the use of the nuclear weapons, he sealed the fate for the American POWs as well as the Japanese citizens. They were expendable, you know. As are all American soldiers. https://hiroshima-pows.org/
The moral authority of the United States is a cosmic joke. The vibrations scientists have been interpreting as gravity waves from the Big Bang are ripples of cosmic laughter.
How very true…………………………………………………….
Not worth reading. Politicaal stunts. We saw plenty of them lately. Feel good nonsense leading nowhere. Apoearance of politicians at work. Saw plenty of those on Yemen.
Free Assange Now…!
American conservatives Urge Biden to Drop Charges Against Donald J Trump?
I normally dont find myself standing with Dems or AOC….but this time I do.
It’s refreshing to see that the Squad can still occasionally find their moral compass in their purse. Certainly, beats sending more depleted uranium to those fine young rapists in Ukraine.
They will be rebuked and then they will back down.