Hactivist Group Leaks New Files on the Case Between the U.S. Government and Julian Assange – Gizmodo UK

The pro-transparency group, DDoSecrets, has published sensitive documents and communications relating to the case between Julian Assange and the U.S. Government on a site called AssangeLeaks.

The documentswere published on AssangeLeaks, at 3am AEST on July 15 and contain 26 PDFs as well as a video file and a folder of previous leaked documents. Prior to publishing the group had acountdown timer running on the site.

The subject of the release contains a number of chat logs between Julian Assange, the Australian founder of WikiLeaks. The documents included on the site include chat logs and letters dating back to 2010 between Assange, sources and hackers. They relate to Chelsea Manning and upcoming leaks the organisation had planned at the time.

The site said it was not taking a side by releasing the information, rather that the release of documents was in the interest of transparency.

With the [U.S.] Justice Departments superseding indictment against Assange, public access to the evidence becomes critical. The documents in this file illuminate that case and illustrate how WikiLeaks operates behind closed doors, the site reads.

AssangeLeaks is not for or against Julian Assange or WikiLeaks, and is only interested in the evidence.

The documents publication hasnt been without criticism. An Italian investigative reporter and pro-Assange advocate, Stefania Maurizi stated that private communications between journalists should not be the target of document releases unless there is criminal wrongdoing.

Assange is currently serving a 50-week sentence in Londons HM Prison Belmarsh for failing to surrender to the court. He was previously granted asylum by Londons Ecuadorean embassy and had lived there since 2012 until his arrest in April 2019.

In May 2019, 17 new charges were filed by the U.S. government against Assange, accusing him and WikiLeaks of violating the U.S.s Espionage Act.

To obtain information to release on the WikiLeaks website, Assange encouraged sources to circumvent legal safeguards on information; provide that protected information to WikiLeaks for public dissemination; and continue the pattern of illegally procuring and providing protected information to WikiLeaksfor distribution to the public, thecharges read.

He predicated his and WikiLeakss success in part upon encouraging sources with access to such information to violate legal obligations and provide that information for WikiLeaks to disclose.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department fileda superseding indictment a new set of charges that supersedes the previous ones broadening the charges against Assange.

It alleges Assange had worked with hacking groups, like Anonymous and LulzSec, to target classified government information. It alleges it was has this information after revealing a member of LulzSec, referenced as Sabu, was an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Assanges extradition hearing in Londonis expected to occur in Septemberafter a delay pushed its original May date back.

Correction (July 17, 2020): An earlier version of this article referred to DDoSecrets as a group of hacktivists. This is incorrect and the article has been updated to reflect this. Gizmodo regrets this error.

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Hactivist Group Leaks New Files on the Case Between the U.S. Government and Julian Assange - Gizmodo UK