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U.S. NEWS Saturday 13 april 2019
Charging Assange reflects dramatic shift in U.S. approach

By ERIC TUCKER
and BEN FOX
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
decision to seek the extra-
dition of Julian Assange
marked a dramatic new
approach to the founder of
WikiLeaks by the U.S. gov-
ernment, a shift that was
signaled in the early days
of the Trump administra-
tion.
President Barack Obama’s
Justice Department had
extensive internal debates
about whether to charge
Assange amid concerns
the case might not hold
up in court and would be
viewed as an attack on
journalism by an adminis-
tration already taking heat
for leak prosecutions.
But senior Trump adminis-
tration officials seemed to
make it clear early on that
they held a different view,
dialing up the rhetoric on
the anti-secrecy organiza-
tion shortly after it made
damaging disclosures Julian Assange gestures as he arrives at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London, after the WikiLeaks founder was arrested by
about the CIA’s cyberes- officers from the Metropolitan Police and taken into custody Thursday April 11, 2019.
pionage tools. Associated Press
“WikiLeaks walks like a hos- a single count of com- a tipping point in deciding “The charges are based spiracy. It focuses on an
tile intelligence service and puter intrusion conspiracy to pursue Assange, the of- on facts that were known entirely different violation
talks like a hostile intelli- that dates to 2010. Back ficial said. throughout the Obama ad- that may obviate any First
gence service,” former CIA then, WikiLeaks is alleged “Vault 7 was the nail in the ministration, which chose Amendment or press free-
Director Mike Pompeo said to have helped Chelsea coffin, so to speak,” the of- not to indict because of dom concern.
in April 2017 in his first pub- Manning, then a U.S. Army ficial said. the obvious challenge to “This is just charging a jour-
lic speech as head of the intelligence analyst, crack It ended years of ambiva- the First Amendment that nalist with conspiracy to
agency. a password that gave her lence about what to do would involve,” Ellsberg hack into computer sys-
“Assange and his ilk,” higher-level access to clas- about Assange, who was said in an Associated Press tems, which is no differ-
Pompeo said, seek “per- sified computer networks. hailed by many when interview. A former Justice ent than breaking into a
sonal self-aggrandizement Nor will they say whether WikiLeaks published hun- Department official, who building or breaking into a
through the destruction of the Obama administration dreds of thousands of State spoke on condition of ano- classified safe,” said Mary
Western values.” had the same evidence Department cables and nymity to discuss internal McCord, a senior Justice
A week after the CIA direc- that forms the basis of the U.S. military documents, discussions, said there was Department national se-
tor’s speech, then-Attorney indictment, or whether As- including many that re- an extensive debate within curity official in the Obama
General Jeff Sessions said sange will face additional vealed previously unknown the government over the administration. “And that’s
the arrest of Assange was counts if he is extradited to facts about the wars in Iraq feasibility of charging As- not First Amendment pro-
a priority, part of a broader the United States. and Afghanistan and the sange with the publication tected activity.”
Justice Department crack- But a U.S. official, speaking detainees held at the U.S. of stolen, classified materi- That is a widely held view in
down on leakers. on condition of anonymity base at Guantanamo Bay, als. But prosecutors grew government, even among
“We’ve already begun to discuss internal and legal Cuba. concerned that such a people generally sympa-
to step up our efforts, and matters, traced the genesis Even today, Assange and case would not hold up thetic to the mission of the
whenever a case can be of the indictment to what’s WikiLeaks have supporters in court. Even though offi- media.
made, we will seek to put known as the “Vault 7 leak” around the world, amid a cials did not agree with As- “This was deliberate and
some people in jail,” he in 2017, when WikiLeaks re- debate over whether the sange’s self-characteriza- malicious effort to cause
said. leased thousands of pages dissemination of raw, unfil- tion as a journalist, the for- harm to us, to U.S. nation-
Pompeo, now secretary of documents revealing tered documents and data mer official said, there was al security interests and I
of state, declined Friday details about CIA tools for counts as journalism. concern that it would be think it would be good if
to discuss the issue, citing breaking into targeted Daniel Ellsberg, the former hard to justify charging him there is some account-
the now-active legal pur- computers, cellphones and military analyst behind the with actions that more con- ability at last,” said David
suit of Assange following consumer electronics. famed leak of the secret ventional journalists take. Pearce, who was U.S. Am-
his removal a day earlier A former CIA software en- history of the Vietnam War The former official said the bassador to Algeria in 2010
by British authorities from gineer was charged with known as the Pentagon Pa- department at the time when WikiLeaks released
the Ecuadorian Embassy in violating the Espionage Act pers, called the charging was more amenable to hundreds of thousands of
London. by providing the informa- of Assange an “ominous” bringing a case like the secret diplomatic cables.
The administration won’t tion to WikiLeaks and is to effort to criminalize a nec- one ultimately brought — a “So far there hasn’t been
say why they decided now go on trial later this year in essary component of jour- narrower prosecution cen- any accountability for Mr.
to charge Assange with New York. And the leak was nalism. tered on a hacking con- Assange.”q