WikiLeaks Assange arrested on U.S. charges he helped hack …

Julian Assange arrives at Westminster Magistrates court after London police arrested the WikiLeaks founder at the Ecuadorian embassy on Thursday. | Jack Taylor/Getty Images

Legal

British police took Assange into custody after Ecuador withdrew his asylum.

By CAITLIN OPRYSKO and KYLE CHENEY

04/11/2019 06:00 AM EDT

Updated 04/11/2019 03:55 PM EDT

British police arrested WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London on Thursday, a move they made in response to a U.S. extradition request on charges that he aided the hacking of classified material on U.S. government computers in 2010.

The indictment, revealed Thursday by the Justice Department and dated March 6, 2018, alleges Assange aided former U.S. intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning with "cracking a password stored on U.S. Department of Defense computers" that contained classified documents and secrets. He is charged with "conspiracy to commit computer intrusion."

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"Manning, who had access to the computers in connection with her duties as an intelligence analyst, was using the computers to download classified records to transmit to WikiLeaks," DOJ said. "Cracking the password would have allowed Manning to log on to the computers under a username that did not belong to her. Such a deceptive measure would have made it more difficult for investigators to determine the source of the illegal disclosures."

The legal team for Manning, who was jailed last month for contempt of court for refusing to testify on WikiLeaks, demanded her release. Her lawyers said Thursday they would file to have the contempt finding vacated in light of the backdated indictment since her testimony can no longer contribute to a grand jury investigation, arguing her detention can no longer be seriously alleged to constitute an attempt to coerce her testimony.

The fact that this indictment has existed for over a year underscores what Chelseas legal team and Chelsea herself have been saying since she was first issued a subpoena to appear in front of a Federal Grand Jury in the Eastern District of Virginia that compelling Chelsea to testify would have been duplicative of evidence already in the possession of the grand jury, and was not needed in order for US Attorneys to obtain an indictment of Mr. Assange, her lawyers said.

London police said they were invited into the embassy by Ecuadors ambassador after Ecuador withdrew Assange's asylum. Assange had taken refuge in the embassy in 2012 after he was released on bail while facing extradition to Sweden on sexual assault allegations that have since been dropped.

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A judge in Westminster Magistrates Court found Assange guilty of breaching bail in that case Thursday, and he faces up to 12 months in jail for those charges in addition to an upcoming battle over his extradition. Jennifer Robinson, an attorney for Assange, said that he would be back in court for that within the next month.

And in a press conference after Assanges first appearance, she threatened that if the extradition attempts were successful, any journalist can be extradited for prosecution in the United States for having published truthful information about the United States.

Kristinn Hrafnsson, WikiLeaks editor in chief, said he was skeptical of the charges DOJ chose to use, suggesting they picked just one element of what they have been working on for years and decided what to charge him with with the sole aim of getting him back on U.S. soil.

While he noted that the U.S. had not promised there would be no additional charges filed against Assange, the so-called doctrine of specialty in most extradition treaties would make that difficult.

The charges unveiled by DOJ appear to have no direct connection to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Mueller's indictment of Russians for hacking and releasing Democratic emails in 2016 emails that were later published by WikiLeaks alluded to Assange but did not name him.

Assange has been under U.S. Justice Department scrutiny for years for WikiLeaks role in publishing thousands of government secrets.

Congress has also signaled an interest in Assange. The House Judiciary Committee sought documents from him as part of its sprawling investigation of potential obstruction of justice and abuse of power by President Donald Trump, but Assange declined to cooperate, claiming he should be treated as a journalist and not forced to reveal his information at the outset of a congressional investigation.

The U.S. intelligence community has identified Assange as an outlet for Russian propaganda, but the nature of the charges against him will be closely scrutinized. Assange and his supporters say he had no role in hacking Democratic documents or harvesting other government secrets but simply acted as a publisher and journalist and that his prosecution would set a dangerous precedent for other journalists.

The ACLU and other press freedom advocates echoed this concern in statements warning against charging Assange for simply publishing government secrets.

Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee last year criticized Trump's campaign for "ill-advised" contacts with WikiLeaks several senior officials on the campaign, including Trump himself, hailed and promoted WikiLeaks' hacked emails. Several Trump associates also attempted to contact Assange throughout the 2016 election.

Assange has been an omnipresent figure in multiple prongs of Muellers investigation. In addition to Assanges unnamed role in the indictment of Russians, longtime Trump associate Roger Stone was charged with lying to Congress and obstructing an investigation into his efforts to communicate with Assange.

Stone publicly bragged in 2016 about being in contact with Assange but later said it was through an intermediary and has denied any advanced knowledge of the hacked materials Assange intended to publish. Trumps longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, told investigators and lawmakers that he was present for a phone call in July 2016 in which Stone informed Trump that Assange was imminently preparing to publish tranches of Democratic emails.

Assange has also denied that the hacked emails he published in 2016 were from Russia and fueled unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that the emails may have come from a Democratic insider. Trump touted this claim shortly before taking office in a tweet.

Julian Assange said 'a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta' - why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info! Trump tweeted on Jan. 4, 2017.

But Trump distanced himself from Assange and WikiLeaks on Thursday despite repeatedly dumping praise on Assange in the past, telling reporters in the Oval Office that he didnt have an opinion on what should happen to Assange and was leaving the issue to Attorney General William Barr.

I know nothing about Wikileaks. It's not my thing. I know there is something having to do with Julian Assange, I have been seeing what has happened with Assange. That will be a determination, I would imagine, mostly by the attorney general, who is doing an excellent job, Trump said.

Assange had not come out of the embassy for almost seven years because he feared arrest and extradition to the United States for publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic cables through WikiLeaks. Although Sweden has dropped the sexual assault case that first led to Assanges arrest in Britain, U.K. authorities said he would be rearrested if he ever left the embassy because he skipped bail in the original case.

In a statement Thursday, the U.K.s Home Office confirmed Assanges arrest was related to an extradition request from the U.S., noting that he is accused in the United States of America of computer related offences.

Barry Pollack, one of Assanges lawyers, demanded access to proper health care for Assange, which he said Assange had been denied for seven years.

Once his health care needs have been addressed, the UK courts will need to resolve what appears to be an unprecedented effort by the United States seeking to extradite a foreign journalist to face criminal charges for publishing truthful information, he said in a statement.

Assanges arrest drew mixed reactions, with some coming to his defense and others decrying his publication of thousands of classified U.S. military and diplomatic cables as well as his frequent alignment with and defense of Russia.

Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and other members of his committee railed against Assange and celebrated his arrest.

Under the guise of transparency, Julian Assange and Wikileaks have effectively acted as an arm of the Russian intelligence services for years, Burr said in a statement. Mr. Assange engaged in a conspiracy to steal classified information, putting millions of lives at risk all over the world. Hopefully, he will now face justice.

Nebraska GOP Sen. Ben Sasse called Assanges arrest good news for freedom-loving people and in a statement derided WikiLeaks as an outlet for foreign propaganda and its frontman as an enemy of the American people.

He deserves to spend the rest of his life in an American prison. Assange is no ally to serious journalists or to defenders of free speech, Sasse continued. Hes in bed with Vladimir Putin who murders journalists and dissidents.

And Tom Cotton, the Arkansas senator who was deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2006 to 2009, added that Assange and Manning endangered the lives of American troops in a time of war.

He then took a jab at Assanges confinement inside the Ecuadorian embassy: Since Assange is used to living inside, Im sure hell be prepared for federal prison.

Democrats on committees involved in investigating aspects of Mueller's findings -- from Russian links to the Trump campaign to questions about whether Trump attempted to obstruct the investigation -- indicated they may like to hear from Assange if he lands on U.S. soil and can be convinced or compelled to testify.

"We might try," said Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee. "Im really most interested in him as a possible assistance in our counterintelligence efforts.

Himes said it's unlikely Assange would cooperate, calling him an "ideologue" who might "decide to be a martyr."

Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, similarly said he "could imagine some circumstances" in which various congressional committees attempt to get information out of Assange. He added that he expects Assange to face legal consequences for his having "facilitated the use of stolen emails and other materials to allow others to interfere and attack America's presidential elections."

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), a member of the House Oversight Committee, raised questions about the nature of the charges against Assange, noting that they were considered by the Obama administration but "turned down because it was seen as beyond the pale in terms of impact on journalism and journalists."

"Im concerned by that specific aspect very much so in this situation," Ocasio-Cortez said.

Jeh Johnson, former President Barack Obamas Homeland Security secretary for much of the time Assange spent holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy, asserted Thursday that I do not regard him as a hero.

In an interview on Fox News Fox & Friends, Johnson alluded to the already-revived debate about whether Assange has any protections under the First Amendment, a thorny issue that for now DOJ seems to have avoided with its narrow indictment.

He apparently aided and assisted in the leak of classified information at some point there may be a debate whether he was a journalist and that was journalist activity, he said, arguing that the distinctions for what can be considered legitimate journalist activity and what constitutes a journalist is a more complex question in the age of the internet.

Sen. Lindsey Graham echoed Johnsons rejection of Assange as a whistleblower or a victim.

"Im glad to see the wheels of justice are finally turning when it comes to Julian Assange, the South Carolina Republican and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee tweeted. In my book, he has NEVER been a hero. His actions - releasing classified information - put our troops at risk and jeopardized the lives of those who helped us in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Christophe Deloire, the executive director of the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders implored the U.K. to stick to a principled stance and ensure Assanges protections under local and European law are relevant to his contributions to journalism.

Targeting Assange because of Wikileaks provision of information to journalists that was in the public interest would be a punitive measure and would set a dangerous precedent for journalists or their sources that the US may wish to pursue in future, Deloire warned.

The ACLU similarly raised the alarm about the precedent prosecuting Assange solely for publishing would set.

Any prosecution by the United States of Mr. Assange for Wikileaks publishing operations would be unprecedented and unconstitutional, and would open the door to criminal investigations of other news organizations, said Ben Wizner, director of the groups Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project.

Moreover, prosecuting a foreign publisher for violating U.S. secrecy laws would set an especially dangerous precedent for U.S. journalists, who routinely violate foreign secrecy laws to deliver information vital to the public's interest."

Assanges legal team continued to lean into that defense.

Pollack argued that the factual allegations ... boil down to encouraging a source to provide him information and taking efforts to protect the identity of that source and said the charges should trouble journalists around the world.

Ecuadors president, Lenin Moreno, said his government made a sovereign decision to revoke Assanges political asylum due to repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life.

Today I announce that that the discourteous and aggressive behavior of Mr. Julian Assange, the hostile and threatening declarations of its allied organization, against Ecuador, and especially the transgression of international treaties, have led the situation to a point where the asylum of Mr. Assange is unsustainable and no longer viable, Moreno said in a video released on Twitter.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, applauded the Ecuadorian government for yanking Assanges asylum protection so that he can finally face justice for his actions. However, Warner did not refer to the charges unsealed against Assange Thursday, instead condemning WikiLeaks actions during the 2016 election.

Unfortunately, whatever his intentions when he started WikiLeaks, what hes really become is a direct participant in Russian efforts to undermine the West and a dedicated accomplice in efforts to undermine American security, he said.

Video posted online by Ruptly, a news service of Russia Today, showed several men in suits carrying Assange out of the embassy building and loading him into a police van while uniformed British police officers formed a passageway. Assange sported a full beard and slicked-back grey hair.

Pollack called Ecuadors treatment of Assange bitterly disappointing.

His apprehension also caught the attention of the Kremlin, who weighed in later Thursday on his arrest.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday the way Assange was treated gave the full impression of an open and rude disregard for the human dignity of the arrested.

Zakharova added that Moscow hopes all the rights of Julian Assange will be respected.

Edward Snowden, who like Assange is a whistleblower and a fugitive and who is holed up in Russia to avoid prosecution in the U.S., also came to Assange's defense.

In a series of tweets, Snowden referred to Assange as a "publisher of--like it or not--award-winning journalism" and speculated that images of Assange being dragged out of the embassy "are going to end up in the history books."

"Assange's critics may cheer, but this is a dark moment for press freedom," he wrote.

WikiLeaks quickly drew attention to U.S. interest in Assange.

Powerful actors, including CIA, are engaged in a sophisticated effort to de-humanise, de-legitimize and imprison him, the organization said in a tweet over a photo of Assanges smiling face.

Londons Metropolitan Police Service said Assange was taken into custody at a central London police station where he will remain, before being presented before Westminster Magistrates Court as soon as is possible.

His arrest came a day after WikiLeaks accused Ecuadors government of an extensive spying operation against Assange.

WikiLeaks claims that meetings with lawyers and a doctor inside the embassy over the past year were secretly filmed.

WikiLeaks said in a tweeted statement that Ecuador illegally terminated Assanges political asylum in violation of international law.

Robinson, the Assange attorney, said her client felt justified in his paranoia. I have just been with Mr. Assange in the police cells, she told reporters outside of the court. He wants to thank all of his supporters for their ongoing support, and he said I told you so.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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