House Democrats call for charges against Assange to be dropped
On April 11, seven House Democrats sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland calling for charges against Australian journalist Julian Assange to be dropped.
The letter was led by Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and was signed by 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).
Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks who is currently imprisoned in the U.K. and awaiting possible extradition to the U.S., faces 17 charges under the Espionage Act and one charge for conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.
Assange would face up to 175 years in prison if convicted on all 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.”
WikiLeaks is known for publishing information about the U.S. State Department, Guantanamo Bay and the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 2010, WikiLeaks published a video entitled Collateral Murder, which shows American soldiers killing over a dozen Iraqi citizens, including two Reuters journalists.
"Press freedom, civil liberty, and human rights groups have been emphatic that the charges against Mr. Assange pose a grave and unprecedented threat to everyday, constitutionally protected journalistic activity, and that a conviction would represent a landmark setback for the First Amendment," the letter states.
The letter states that much of the information published by WikiLeaks has been published by other outlets, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, and that under the logic of Assange's indictment any of those outlets could also be prosecuted for their reporting.
"The prosecution of Mr. Assange marks the first time in U.S. history that a publisher of truthful information has been indicted under the Espionage Act," the letter states. "The prosecution of Mr. Assange, if successful, not only sets a legal precedent whereby journalists or publishers can be prosecuted, but a political one as well.
"In the future the New York Times or Washington Post could be prosecuted when they publish important stories based on classified information," the letter states. "Or, just as dangerous for democracy, they may refrain from publishing such stories for fear of prosecution."
The letter concludes by stating that the prosecution of Assange "needlessly undermines our own moral authority abroad and rolls back the freedom of the press under the First Amendment at home."