What has happened to Julian Assange?

Swedish prosecutors have dropped their rape investigation into the WikiLeaks founder. Marianne Ny, Swedens director of public prosecutions, said she had decided to discontinue the inquiry into the allegation dating from 2010, when the country issued a European arrest warrant for him.

Why has the investigation been dropped?

Ny said Sweden had exhausted the possibilities for investigating the allegations and were therefore obliged under Swedish law to discontinue the inquiry. But, she said, it could be reopened if Assange returns to Sweden before the statute of limitations ends in 2020. She also confirmed that Sweden had withdrawn its request for a European arrest warrant against him. Another allegation of sexual assault made by a second Swedish woman was dropped by Swedish authorities in 2015 after the statute of limitations expired. The UK government said on Friday it had no involvement in Swedens decision to drop the investigation.

Does this mean Assange can walk out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London?

No, because he still faces arrest over breaching UK bail conditions, and the possibility of extradition to the US. Assange sought refuge in Ecuadors embassy in London in 2012, after UK courts ruled that Swedens extradition request was lawful. Assange has always said he believes he faces extradition to the US because WikiLeaks published classified information. But the Metropolitan police have maintained that Assange would be arrested if he left the embassy.

That position has not changed. Scotland Yard said on Friday that it is still obliged to execute a warrant issued by Westminster magistrates court for the arrest of Assange after his breach of bail conditions in June 2012. It said in a statement:

While Mr Assange was wanted on a European arrest warrant for an extremely serious offence, the MPS response reflected the serious nature of that crime. Now that the situation has changed and the Swedish authorities have discontinued their investigation into that matter, Mr Assange remains wanted for a much less serious offence. The MPS will provide a level of resourcing which is proportionate to that offence. The priority for the MPS must continue to be arresting those who are currently wanted in the capital in connection with serious violent or sexual offences for the protection of Londoners.

The offence of breaching bail carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison.

Does the US want Assange to be extradited?

Almost certainly, but the Home Office never confirms whether an extradition request has been made or received until the person in question has been arrested. Last month, the US attorney general, Jeff Sessions, said the arrest of Assange was a priority after the CIA director, Mike Pompeo, described WikiLeaks as a hostile intelligence service and a threat to US national security.

US federal prosecutors are understood to be considering bringing charges against Assange over a number of the websites publications since 2010. This could potentially lead to an extradition request for Assange. Weve already begun to step up our efforts and whenever a case can be made, we will seek to put some people in jail, Sessions said.

Has the European arrest warrant against Assange been lifted?

Yes. The Crown Prosecution Service said that the European Arrest Warrant was discharged on Friday at Westminster Magistrates Court after the Swedish investigation was dropped.

Has Assange been questioned by Swedish prosecutors?

Yes, this took place at the embassy last November in the presence of Swedens chief prosecutor, Ingrid Isgren. Assange later released his full testimony to Swedish prosecutors, maintaining that he was entirely innocent of the allegation.

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Can Julian Assange now walk free? What happens next - Q&A ...

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. Im Amy Goodman. Were talking to Julian Assange, who has taken refuge, got political asylum in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, for the last five-and-a-half years has lived in this tiny embassy in London. Julian, talk about the status of your case. In fact, you were holed up there so that you wouldnt be extradited to Sweden, fearing then you would be extradited to the United States. But Sweden has dropped its case against you.

JULIAN ASSANGE: Yeah, of course. It never had a case. I was never charged. It was a, quote, preliminary investigation, which had been reopened, which had already been closed. So, yeah, but the United States continues its grand jury formally. Its expanded it now to include our CIA publications. And CIATrumps CIA Director Pompeo and the DOJ has been, at least in their statementsand we know from some internal matterspursuing that aggressively.

AMY GOODMAN: Why do they want you here in the United States? And what role is Britain playing right now? I mean, they dont have to respond. There is not a known arrest warrant for you.

JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, the U.K. says they refuse to confirm or deny whether they have already received a sealed extradition order. And the U.S. says that they refuse to confirm or deny whether they have already issued one.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to Mike Pompeo in his first public address as CIA director. He was speaking at a Washington, D.C., think tank earlier this year, blasted WikiLeaks as a hostile intelligence service, in a stark reversal from his previous praise for WikiLeaks. This is what he said.

MIKE POMPEO: Its time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is: a nonstate, hostile intelligence service, often abetted by state actors like Russia. In reality, they champion nothing but their own celebrity. Their currency is clickbait, their moral compass nonexistent. Their mission, personal of aggrandizement through destruction of Western values.

AMY GOODMAN: Mike Pompeo, CIA director, his first major address as CIA director, takes on WikiLeaks and you, Julian. Your response?

JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, its a bit flattering, isnt it? I mean, hes saying that, essentially, that were a nonstate intelligence agency. Those are his words, which, of course, is completely absurd. Look, the media, media organizations, cultivate sources, protect their identities, if theyre doing their job well, and publish their material. The Central Intelligence Agency collects information for a different reasonto exploit it for interstate power, its own powerand then doesnt publish it. So, the intentionality in obtaining information is to publish it, in the case of a media organization, and then it is published, hopefully. It is, with WikiLeaks. And the intelligence agencies collect information with a different intentionality, and they dont publish. So, itsyeah, its absurd. I think its kind of funny. It comes from our, you know, incredible CIA publications. Its our ongoing series called Vault 7. Now, its very, very rare that a current CIA document to be released in full. In fact, Im not aware of it ever having occurred, at least in the last decade, except for our publications, publications prior to this year that weve done a few and this year, as well. So, its deeply humiliating for the CIA, in front of other intelligence agencies it has to deal with, and the FBI, to be perceived as incompetent in that way.

AMY GOODMAN: Were you

JULIAN ASSANGE: Which it is, dangerously incompetent.

AMY GOODMAN: Were you surprised to hear the Trump administration attacking you? This is Pompeo. Now, of course, Trump also attacks his own people and has different points of view on issues, like Rex Tillerson, who hes supposedly having lunch with, who supposedly called him a moron. At least he said heat least Tillerson did not deny that he had done this. So, do you think that Pompeo and Trump disagree? Trump talked about loving WikiLeaks when he was on the campaign trail, as he was talking about calling for the release of email.

JULIAN ASSANGE: Well, everyone loves WikiLeaks when were publishing information about those that they politically oppose. I mean, thats inevitable. And when we start publishing information about, you know, Trumps CIA, of course, the attitude changes.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you understand if there is still a grand jury open that is weighing your case in the United States? And for people who havent followed the case for five-and-a-half years with you being inside the embassy, what you understand is an arrest warrant or what you understand is out there as a result of a grand jury, a secret grand jury?

JULIAN ASSANGE: The U.S. government and the U.K. government behave as if there is a sealed indictment, in terms of their refusal to talk about it, their interactions with our lawyers and so on. So they either have one or they have a virtuala virtual one.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you see yourself

JULIAN ASSANGE: The grand jury has been expanded now from our war crimes publications about Iraq and Afghanistan, the ones that are alleged to have been associated with Chelsea Manning, to now include the CIA publications.

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Julian Assange Marks 5.5 Years Inside Ecuadorean Embassy as ...

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has put out a statement saying that both Barcelona and Madrid are actively using IT in waging war against Catalan independence, in what could be described as the worlds first internet war.

Assange tweeted Saturday, What is happening in Catalonia is the most significant Western conflict between people and state since the fall of the Berlin wall.

The worlds first internet war has begun, in Catalonia, as the people and government use it to organize an independence referendum on Sunday and Spanish intelligence attacks, freezing telecommunications links, occupying telecoms buildings, censors 100s of sites, protocols etc., Assange wrote on his Twitter page.

Sputnik reports:

On Sunday, Catalonia is expected to hold an independence referendum. The Spanish federal government has filed a complaint with the countrys Constitutional Court over the Catalan government and parliament approving the law on the independence vote. The court has taken the complaint under review, outlawing the plebiscite.

He added that the tensions around Catalonias vote could be described as the most significant western conflict between people and the state since the fall of the Berlin wall.

Opinion polls show that Catalonias independence is supported by 41 percent of its residents, with 49 percent against it, while as much as 80 percent of Catalans are in favor of the referendum itself, most of them believe that the vote should be agreed upon with the central government in Madrid.

Catalonia defies Spanish government and makes independence vote official

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The 'World's First Internet War' Has Begun: Julian Assange ...

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: Noam, I wanted to, before we get to your book, your latest book, ask you about this latest development in the United States. The director of the Central Intelligence Agency gave his first major address, and he focused on WikiLeaks. And it looks like now the U.S. is preparing an arrest warrant for Julian Assange, whos been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London for almost five years now. Pompeo calling WikiLeaks a hostile non-state intelligence service, calling Julian Assange himself a demon, and said hes not protected by the First Amendment. Your thoughts?

NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, I think it speaks for itself. WikiLeaks has released lots of information that governments dont like. Its overwhelmingly information that citizens should have. Its information about what their governments are doing. And perfectly natural that systems of power dont want to be exposed, so theyll do what they can to prevent exposure. I think its a disgraceful act. In fact, I think its disgraceful even to keep Julian Assange holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy. I did visit him there once, but you can guess yourself. Its, in many ways, worse than imprisonment. At least if youre in prison, you can see other prisoners, and you can get out and look at the sunshine now and then. Hes in a small apartment, where he cant go out. You know, he can go to the balcony, but thats about it, a smallbasically, a couple of rooms inside a small apartment. Its not a big embassy. The embassy is like a kind of an apartment in London, surrounded by police and so on. Theres been no credible basis for any of this. And to go on to try to raise it to the level of criminal prosecutions, I think, is, again, one of these efforts to look tough at home, and the kind of effort that a government would carry out that is dedicated to trying to protect itself from exposure of facts that citizens should have, but systems of power dont want them to have. I think thats the crucial issue.

AMY GOODMAN: The suggestions are it has to do with his aiding and abetting perhaps Chelsea Manning and also Edward Snowden, doing that with Edward Snowden, which he openly admits, while hes trapped in the Ecuadorean Embassy.

NOAM CHOMSKY: If the charge is true, he should be honored for it. Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden carried out heroic, courageous acts. They fulfilled the responsibility of somebody who takes citizenship seriouslythat is, who believes that the people of a country ought to know something about what their government is up to. OK? Like if their government is carrying out murderous, brutal attacks in Iraq, people should know about it. Takes us back to Martin Luther Kings talk in 1967. If the government is, and corporations, too, incidentally, are listening in to your telephone conversations and what youre doing, you know, tapping this discussion and so on, we should know about it. Governments have no right to do things like that. And people should know about it. And if they think its OK, fine, let them decide, not do it in secret. And I think people wouldnt agree to it. Thats why its kept secret. Why else keep it secret? You know? And these are people who exposed it at great risk to themselves. So those are heroic, courageous acts. If WikiLeaks was abetting them, more power to them. Thats what they should be doing.

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, President Trump endorsed WikiLeaks, right? He said, I love WikiLeaks, during the campaign.

NOAM CHOMSKY: Yeah, when it was releasing things that he liked, yeah. Any system of power will do that. You release information that I like, its great. But I dont want to be exposed.

AMY GOODMAN: Thats MIT professor Noam Chomsky speaking on Monday at the First Parish Church in Cambridge. To see our full conversation, go to democracynow.org.

That does it for our show. Ill be speaking at Middlebury College in Vermont today at noon, then on to the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier at 7:00. Tomorrow, Thursday, at noon, Ill be at Bennington College, tomorrow night at the Unitarian church on Pearl Street in Burlington, Vermont. Then, on Saturday night, after Democracy Now!'s 5-hour broadcast of the People's Climate March in Washington, D.C., Ill be speaking at the Plymouth Congregational Church.

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Chomsky: CIA Targeting of Julian Assange of WikiLeaks is ...

Updated: 12:37 p.m.

As my colleague Glenn Greenwald reports, Swedens top prosecutor, Marianne Ny, said on Friday that she has discontinued an investigation into allegations that Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, raped a woman in Stockholm in 2010, and withdrawn an international warrant for his arrest.

Assange responded to the news in a 10-minute statement delivered from a balcony at Ecuadors embassy in London, where dozens of reporters had assembled.

He began his remarks by calling the Swedish decision an important victory for me, and for the U.N. human rights system. But, he added: it by no means erases seven years of detention without charge in prison, under house arrest and almost five years here in this embassy, without sunlight.

Seven years without charge, while my children grew up without me. That is not something that I can forgive; it is not something that I can forget.

He went on to say that the decision was also an important vindication. But, he added, he remains under threat from the United States.

At this point, all possibilities to conduct the investigation are exhausted, Ny had said in her statement earlier in the day. Ecuadors decision to grant Assange political asylum in its embassy in London nearly five years ago, shielding him from extradition, Ny said, had also made it impossible for her to formally notify the Australian of the charges against him.

If he, at a later date, makes himself available, I will be able to decide to resume the investigation immediately, Ny added.

The end of the investigation thrilled Assanges supporters, but dismayed others, including his accuser.

Assange still faces arrest in Britain, however, for failing to surrender to a court in London in 2012, when he lost his appeal against extradition to Sweden and took refuge in the embassy. The Metropolitan Police Service in London said that its officers would be obliged to execute that warrant should he leave the Embassy.

A more serious concern for the WikiLeaks founder is the fact that Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently called arresting Assange a priority, and the Justice Department has reportedly reopened discussions about bringing charges against Assange for publishing government secrets.

Asked at an earlier news conference in Stockholm about the WikiLeaks founder declaring that the end of the investigation was a victory, Ny said, It is possible that he still hasnt had time to read through the entire decision.

Writing about the Swedish news conference for Motherboard, Kim Zetter reported:

During the press conference Ny asserted that the US had applied absolutely no pressure on Swedish prosecutors about the case. Asked after the conference if they had received any communication or inquiries from the US government about the case, Isgren and Ny said that at the end of March, they received an email from someone purporting to be from the FBI seeking information about the case. They said the inquiry was vague and they simply directed the person to the prosecutors web site for public information about the case.

Asked who the FBI person was, both said they had no memory of the name and had deleted the email. They asserted that because the email did not have anything to do with advancing the case, they had no reason to retain it.

The WikiLeaks founder was originally wanted for questioning on accusations of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion brought by two Swedish women in 2010. He strenuously denied those allegations, casting them as part of a politically motivated plot to stifle his work by distorting the circumstances of what he called consensual sex. Three of the four counts were dropped in 2015 when statutes of limitations expired on all but the rape allegation.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said in an opinion released in late 2015 that Assange had been arbitrarily detained by the Governments of Sweden and the United Kingdom since the legal case against him began in 2010. The Ecuadorean embassy, where Assange has resided since losing his appeal against extradition to Sweden in 2012, is surrounded by British police officers 24 hours a day.

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Video of Julian Assange Speaking After Sweden Halts Rape ...

Swedish officials dropped their seven-year rape investigation into WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Friday; a prosecutor said there is no possibility of arresting him in the foreseeable future, according to the Associated Press.

Assange no longer faces sex crime allegations in Sweden but hes not completely in the clear, as he is still wanted for jumping bail in Britain back in 2012.

This is a total victory for Julian Assange. He is now free to leave the embassy when he wants. We have won the Assange case. He is of course happy and relieved. He has been critical that it has lasted that long, Attorney Per E. Samuelsson told Swedish Radio.

Also Read: James Comey Already Has Potential Job Offer... at WikiLeaks

Samuelsson isnt totally accurate with his comments. British police are no longer seeking him for extradition to Sweden but Londons Metropolitan Police force said that it is obliged to execute that warrant should he leave the embassy, according to the AP.

Assange could face a year in prison for the charges in Britain.Hehas been holed up in Ecuadors embassy in London since 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden, where officials wanted him to discuss allegations from two women that he committed sex crimes.

WikiLeaks tweeted about the situation quickly after Sweden dropped the investigation.

Assanges WikiLeaks site famously published a series of leaked classified U.S. documentsthat were damaging to the Hillary Clinton campaign. Then-candidate DonaldTrumpsaid at one campaign rally in October, WikiLeaks has provided things that are unbelievable.

However, during a news conference last month, U.S. attorney general Jeff Sessions said that the arrest of Assange is a priority.U.S. officials are also upset with Assange because WikiLeaks released sensitive documents related to military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

For the first time since 1993, a U.S. president has fired a director of the FBI. Comey's finalyear as head of the Bureau before his dismissal Tuesday was wrought with controversy, as Democrats and Republicans alike criticized him for his handling of the FBI's investigations into Hillary Clinton's emails and possible connections between Donald Trump's campaign and Russia. Here's how we got to this point:

July 2013: Disgraced former NY Congressman Anthony Weiner sees his campaign for New York mayor derailed when screenshots of explicit conversations between him and several women are leaked. His wife, Huma Abedin, who was deputy chief of staff to Hillary Clinton while she was Secretary of State, stands by him.

September 2013: President Barack Obama appoints James Comey as FBI Director. Comey served as U.S. Deputy Attorney General from 2003-2005 and had worked in the intervening years at Lockheed Martin and HSBC, among other private sector jobs.

April 2015: Hillary Clinton announces her campaign for the president just weeks after The New York Times reported that she used a personal email server as Secretary of State. Abedin is named vice-chairwoman of her campaign.

July 2016: After investigating Clinton's emails, Comey announces that the FBI does not recommend charging Clinton in connection to the personal server. Two days later, Comey is questioned by a Republican-led House Committee about his recommendation.

August 2016: Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin announce their separation after reports surface that Weiner had sent explicit text messages to another woman.

September 2016: Reports surface that Weiner had sent illicit text messages to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina, prompting a federal investigation. During the investigation, authorities seize a laptop belonging to Weiner and Abedin.

Oct. 28, 2016: Comey sends a letter to Congress informing members that Abedin's laptop may contain emails linked to the Clinton investigation. Clinton calls on the FBI to release all the information they have.

Nov. 6, 2016: Comey writes another letter saying that nothing new was found on Abedin's laptop, with Newsweek reporting that most of the emails found were ones forwarded by Abedin so she could print them. Two days after Comey sends the second letter, Hillary Clinton loses the presidential election to Donald Trump.

March 2017: Comey reveals during a House Intelligence Committee hearing that the FBI is performing an investigation into possible connections between the Kremlin and members of Trump's campaign.

May 3, 2017: Comey testifies in Congress again, this time before a Senate Committee about the details of the FBI's investigation into Clinton's email server. He says that Abedin had forwarded "forwarded hundreds and thousands of emails, some of which contain classified information" to Weiner to print out of convenience.

May 9, 2017: ProPublica and the Associated Press report that Comey had exaggerated the number of emails found in the laptop and that none of the emails were classified when sent. Later that day, Comey is fired from his position by Donald Trump.

Comeys four-year tenure as FBI director ends 10 months after recommending Hillary Clinton not be charged for his email investigation

For the first time since 1993, a U.S. president has fired a director of the FBI. Comey's finalyear as head of the Bureau before his dismissal Tuesday was wrought with controversy, as Democrats and Republicans alike criticized him for his handling of the FBI's investigations into Hillary Clinton's emails and possible connections between Donald Trump's campaign and Russia. Here's how we got to this point:

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Julian Assange: Sweden Drops Rape Investigation Against ...

Swedish prosecutors announced Friday that they have dropped their rape investigation against Julian Assange. An arrest warrant for Assange was also revoked.

Since 2012, the WikiLeaks founder had sought asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy in London, avoiding extradition to Sweden to face allegations of sexual assault and rape stemming from a 2010 incident.

In 2015, the sexual assault charges against Assange were dropped after the statue of limitations expired, but the rape investigation remained open until Friday.

"Detained for 7 years without charge by while my children grew up and my name was slandered. I do not forgive or forget," Assange tweeted Friday morning.

Swedish director of public prosecutions Margaret Ny said the decision to drop the rape investigation had been made after all possibilities for charges had been "exhausted." "In order to proceed with the case, Julian Assange would have to be formally notified of the criminal suspicions against him. We cannot expect to receive assistance from Ecuador regarding this. Therefore the investigation is discontinued," Ny said.

"If he, at a later date, makes himself available, I will be able to decide to resume the investigation immediately," he added. Sweden has until 2020 to charge Assange with rape.

"This is one of the happiest days of my legal career," Assange's lawyer Per Samuelson told reporters Friday. "The decision was taken because he was interrogated in November 2016 and could give a good explanation of what happened This is obviously about consensual sex between two adults." The alleged victim told the press through her lawyer that she maintains her allegations. "It's a scandal that a suspected rapist can avoid the judicial system and thus avoid a trial in court," the lawyer said.

Assange still faces immediate arrest in the U.K. for breaching bail conditions after he failed to attend a magistrates court session while in the Ecuadorian embassy. Assange could face a year in prison if he's found guilty of that charge.

"The Metropolitan police service is obliged to execute that warrant should he leave the embassy," London police said in a statement, the Guardian reports.

In 2015, when the sexual assault charges were dropped, Assange suggested that even if the rape investigation were to end, it was unlikely he would leave the Ecuadorian embassy because he feared the United Kingdom would extradite him to the United States, where he could be tried for WikiLeaks' public dispersion of top-secret documents; the U.K. is legally obligated to extradite Assange to the U.S. if given the opportunity.

As recently as April, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said arresting Assange was a "priority," the BBC reported, even though formal charges against Assange and WikiLeaks hadn't been filed.

"This is a matter that's gone beyond anything I'm aware of," Sessions said at the time. "We have professionals that have been in the security business of the United States for many years that are shocked by the number of leaks and some of them are quite serious."

Sessions added, "We've already begun to step up our efforts and whenever a case can be made, we will seek to put some people in jail."

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Sweden Drops Rape Investigation into Julian Assange - Rolling ...

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has offered to prove that Russia didnt leak the e-mails of the Democratic National Committee last year. But he wants a deal a pardon for spilling the beans.

There is absolutely no reason that President Trump shouldnt take him up on the offer.

WikiLeaks published hundreds of thousands of DNC e-mails, as well as ones from the computer of campaign head John Podesta and others. If the Russians didnt hack the DNC computers and release the e-mails, then someone else did.

And the best candidate for the role of leaker is someone inside the DNC perhaps a supporter of Bernie Sanders who felt his candidate wasnt getting a fair shake.

This would change history and render moot any investigation of the Trump administration, except where it pertains to the much less serious allegation of obstruction of justice. I say lesser allegation, because it would involve obstruction of justice for a crime (the Russian hacking) that didnt happen.

Heres my best educated guess on the whole thing: A very good source of mine says the Russians stole Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clintons e-mails, but never released them, while someone inside the DNC was responsible for making the e-mails of Podesta and other Democrats public.

Whats the bigger effect of all this? Well, all else being equal and it never is in the Trump administration this would remove a cloud over the president and strengthen his hand in tax reform, ObamaCare repeal and lots of other things.

The financial markets would like that.

Trump should take Assange up on his offer.

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Why Trump should listen to Julian Assanges DNC email offer

A vigorous campaign by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to break Catalonia off from Spain, further splintering Europe, is landing him in hot water with the government of Ecuador that has provided him with diplomatic refuge in its embassy in London.

Assange and Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno have traded barbs this week over whether his behavior comports with that of someone granted political asylum.

Assange challenged Moreno Thursday to try to silence him.

If President Moreno wants to gag my reporting of human rights abuses in Spain he should say so explicitlytogether with the legal basis, Assange tweeted.

Friction between Assange and his Ecuadorean hosts has grown since May, when Moreno took office and surprised his nations voters by departing sharply from the path set by his predecessor, the fiery populist Rafael Correa. Moreno was considered Correas protg.

Moreno has told two international television networks in the past week that Assange should watch his tongue and not harm Ecuadors relations with its allies.

Assange has resided in Ecuadors Embassy in London since 2012, granted asylum by the Andean nation to sidestep possible espionage charges that he feared the U.S. government sought to bring against him for publicizing classified U.S. government documents and cables.

We gave him asylum but we have asked him in a cordial way to stop commenting on the politics of Ecuador and that of friendly countries because his status as an asylum seeker does not allow it. So he is surpassing that condition," Moreno told CNN en Espaol.

Moreno offered similar sentiments in an interview late last week with RT, the Russian state network.

Assange has taken a fierce interest in the Catalonia independence drive, and has tweeted more than 100 times in multiple languages in the past three days about the independence referendum set for Sunday.

Earlier Friday, Assange tweeted: The Spanish government in Madrid is trying every way it can to stop Catalonia's independence referendum Sunday.

Spains Constitutional Court ruled Sept. 6 that the Catalan independence referendum was unconstitutional, and that ruling was followed by weeks of protests in the autonomous regions capital, Barcelona. Last week, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy deployed 4,000 police officers to Catalonia with orders to suppress what Spain considers an illegal referendum.

What may come of the referendum is uncertain, given Spains insistence that the vote is illegal. Some analysts say it may be a step toward Spains disintegration and a further challenge to broader Europes unity.

Ecuador, like most Latin American countries that won independence from Spain two centuries ago, maintains vigorous, even emotional, relations with Madrid.

The friction in Catalonia drew the attention of U.N. experts, who on Thursday called on Spain to respect freedom of expression and assembly ahead of the scheduled vote.

Regardless of the lawfulness of the referendum, the Spanish authorities have a responsibility to respect those rights that are essential to democratic societies, said the two U.N. experts, David Kaye and Alfred de Zayas.

Kaye is the U.N.s special rapporteur on freedom of expression while de Zayas is an independent expert on promotion of a democratic international order.

The frictions between Assange and Moreno appear unlikely to lead Ecuador to end his status in its London embassy. But the personal antipathy between the two appears to be growing.

Shortly after taking office, Moreno dismissed Assange as a hacker and said hacking is an activity I personally reject. Moreno affirmed that Assange would be allowed to remain in the Ecuadorean embassy but warned him not to interfere in Ecuadors relations with other countries.

Assange responded by saying that Moreno had slandered him as a hacker.

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in war of words with nation ...

Swedish prosecutors announced this morning that they were terminating their 7-year-old sex crimes investigation into Julian Assange and withdrawing their August 20, 2010, arrest warrant for him. The chief prosecutor,Marianne Ny, said at a news conference this morning (pictured below) that investigators had reached no conclusion about his guilt or innocence, but instead were withdrawing the warrant because all prospects of pursuing the investigation under present circumstances are exhausted andit is therefore no longer proportionate to maintain the arrest of Julian Assangein his absence.

Chief prosecutor Marianne Ny speaks during a press conference in Stockholm on Friday, May 19, 2017. Swedens top prosecutor said Friday she is dropping an investigation into a rape claim against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange after almost seven years.

Photo: Maja Suslin/TT News Agency/AP

In February of last year, a UN human rights panel formally concluded that the British government was violating Assangesrights by arbitrarily detaining him, and it called for his release. But the U.K. government immediately rejected the UN finding and vowed to ignore it.

Ecuadors rationale for granting asylum to Assange hasoften been overlooked. Ecuadorian officials, along with Assanges supporters, have always insisted that they wanted theinvestigation in Sweden to proceed, and vowed that Assange would board the next plane to Stockholm if Sweden gave assurances that it would notextradite him to the U.S. to face chargesrelating to WikiLeakss publication of documents. It was Swedens refusal to issue such guarantees and Ecuadors fears that Assange would end up being persecuted by the U.S. that has been thebasis for itsasylum protections.

After years of refusing Assanges offers to interview him in the embassy, Swedish prosecutors finally agreed to do so last November. But the Swedes last hope for advancing the case seemed to evaporate last month, when the candidate of the ruling party in Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, won a narrow victory over his right-wing opponent, who had vowed to terminate Assanges asylum.

With the new president signaling thatAssanges asylum would continue indefinitely, there wasvirtually nothing else for prosecutors to do. Upon hearing the news, Assange, on his Twitter account this morning, posted a smiling photograph of himself.

But that celebration obscures several ironies. The most glaring of which is that the legal jeopardy Assange now faces is likely greater than ever.

Almost immediately after the decision by Swedish prosecutors, British police announced that they would nonetheless arrest Assange if he tried to leave the embassy. Police said Assange was still wanted for the crime of failing to surrender meaning that instead of turning himself in upon issuance of his 2012 arrest warrant, he obtained refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy. TheBritish police also, however, noted that this alleged crime is a much less serious offence than the one that served as the basis for the original warrant, and that the police would therefore only provide a level of resourcing which is proportionate to that offence.

That could perhaps imply that with a seriously reduced police presence, Assange could manage to leave the embassy without detection and apprehension. All relevant evidence, however, negates that assumption.

Just weeks ago, Donald Trumps CIA director, Mike Pompeo, delivered an angry, threatening speechabout WikiLeaksin which he argued, We have to recognize that we can no longer allow Assange and his colleagues the latitude to use free speech values against us. The CIA directorvowed to make good on this threat: To give them the space to crush us with misappropriated secrets is a perversion of what our great Constitution stands for. It ends now.

Days later, Attorney General Jeff Sessions strongly suggested that the Trump DOJ would seek to prosecute Assange and WikiLeaks on espionage charges in connection with thegroups publication of classified documents. Trump officials then began leaking to news outlets such as CNN that U.S. authorities have prepared charges to seek the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

For years, the Obama DOJ had extensively considered the possibility of prosecuting WikiLeaks and Assange, even convening a grand jurythatsubpoenaedmultiple witnesses. Though the Obama DOJ refused to say they had terminated that investigation which is what caused Ecuador to continue to fear persecution Obama officials strongly signaled that there was no way to prosecute WikiLeaks without also prosecuting news organizations that published the same documents, or at least creating a precedent that would endanger First Amendment press freedoms. As the Washington Post reported in 2013:

The Justice Department has all but concluded it will not bring charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for publishing classified documents because government lawyers said they could not do so without also prosecuting U.S. news organizations and journalists, according to U.S. officials.

That same article noted that officials stressed that a formal decision has not been made, and a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks remains impaneled. But it seemed that, under Obama, prosecution was highly unlikely. Indeed, last month, in response to my denunciation ofPompeos threat as endangering press freedoms, former Obama DOJ spokesperson Matthew Miller tweeted this:

But the Trump administration at least if one believes its multiplestatements and threats appears unconstrained by those concerns. They appear determined to prosecute WikiLeaks, which has published numerous secret CIA hacking documents this year.

Press freedom groups, along with the ACLU and some journalists, such as the Washington Posts Margaret Sullivan, have warned of the grave dangers such a prosecution would pose to media outlets around the world. But that seems an unlikely impediment to an administration that has made clear that they regard the press as an enemy.

Indeed, Sessions himself refused to rule out the possibility that the prosecution of Assange could lead to the criminal prosecution of other news organizations that publish classified documents. Trumps leading candidate to replace James Comey as FBI director, Joe Lieberman, has long called for the prosecution not only of WikiLeaks but also possibly media outlets such as the New York Times that publish the same classified information. And anonymous sources recently claimed to the New York Times that when Trump met with Comey early on in his administration, the new U.S. presidentexpressly inquired about the possibility of prosecuting news outlets.

The termination of the Swedish investigation is, in one sense, good news for Assange. But it is unlikely to change hisinability to leave the embassy any time soon. If anything, given the apparent determination of the Trump administration to put him in a U.S. prison cell for the crime of publishing documents, his freedom appears further away than it has since 2010, when the Swedish case began.

Top photo: Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on May 2, 2016.

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