[Peace] Jonathan Turley: Julian Assange Will Be Punished for Embarrassing the DC Establishment

Sat Apr 13 07:35:57 UTC 2019

Given who Jonathan Turley is, this is a devastating assault on the
persecution of Julian Assange. One thing I disagree with Turley on: his
pessimism. If we can get Congress to vote to end the Saudi war in Yemen -
and we did, it only took four years - we can get Congress to vote against
the extradition of Julian Assange to stand trial for publishing actions
protected by the First Amendment. Who knows - in two years, we might have a
different President of the U.S. A new President of the United States could
quash this case with the stroke of a pen.

Jonathan Turley was the attorney representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit
of Dennis Kucinich, Walter Jones, and eight other Members of Congress
against the Obama Administration for the unconstitutional war in Libya.

Block Extradition & Prosecution of Julian Assange for First
Amendment-Protected Journalism
https://www.change.org/p/block-extradition-prosecution-of-julian-assange-for-first-amendment-protected-journalism

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Portside <moderator at portside.org>
Date: Fri, Apr 12, 2019 at 10:45 PM
Subject: Julian Assange Will Be Punished for Embarrassing the DC
Establishment

[image: The key to the prosecution of Assange has always been to punish him
without again embarrassing the powerful figures he made mockeries of]
<https://portside.org/>

Julian Assange Will Be Punished for Embarrassing the DC Establishment
<https://portside.org/2019-04-12/julian-assange-will-be-punished-embarrassing-dc-establishment>

Jonathan Turley
April 11, 2019
USA Today
<https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/04/11/wikileaks-julian-assange-nsa-extradition-hacking-chelsea-manning-nobel-column/3434034002/>

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   - <https://portside.org/node/19782/printable/print>

* The key to the prosecution of Assange has always been to punish him
without again embarrassing the powerful figures he made mockeries of *

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in London on April 11, 2019,
Stringer/epa-EFE

He is our property
<https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/438395-manchin-celebrates-assange-arrest-hes-our-property>.”
Those celebratory words of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., came on CNN soon
after the news of the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the
Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

It was a sentiment shared by virtually everyone in Washington from Congress
to the intelligence services. Assange committed the unpardonable sins of
embarrassing the establishment — from members of Congress to intelligence
officials to the news media. And he will now be punished for our sins.
Despite having significant constitutional arguments to be made, it is
likely that he will be stripped of those defenses and even barred from
raising the overall context of his actions in federal court. What could be
the most important free speech and free press case in our history could
well be reduced to the scope and substance of an unauthorized computer
access case
<https://presto.gannettdigital.com/#!/stories/edit/65b9e085-0caf-4b52-937e-65ffdbea2184>
.

For years, the public has debated what Assange is:
journalist, whistleblower, foreign agent, dupe. The problem is that Assange
is first and foremost a publisher.

Moreover, he was doing something that is usually heralded in the news
media. WikiLeaks disclosed disclosed controversial intelligence and
military operations. It later published emails that showed that the
Democratic National Committee and the campaign of Hillary Clinton lied in
various statements to the public, including the rigging of the primary for
her nomination
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/24/here-are-the-latest-most-damaging-things-in-the-dncs-leaked-emails/?utm_term=.13842e3b28ca>.
No one has argued that any of these emails were false. They were
embarrassing. Of course, there is not crime of embarrassing the
establishment, but that is merely a technicality.

The criminal charge against Assange filed in a federal court was crafted to
circumvent the obvious constitutional problems in prosecuting him. The
charge is revealing. He is charged with a single count for his alleged
involvement in the hacking operation of Chelsea Manning in 2010
<https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/wikileaks-founder-charged-computer-hacking-conspiracy>
.

By alleging that Assange actively played a role in the hacking operation,
the government is seeking to portray him as part of the theft rather than
the distribution of the information. The prosecutors say Assange helped
Manning secure a password to gain access to additional information. If
true, that would be a step that most news organizations would not take.

It's likely there will be a superseding indictment once Assange is
successfully extradited to the United States. Moreover, the Justice
Department is likely to move aggressively to strip Assange of his core
defenses. Through what is called a motion in limine
<https://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=1291>, the government
will ask the court to declare that the disclosure of intelligence
controversies is immaterial.

This would leave Assange with only the ability to challenge whether he
helped with passwords and little or no opportunity to present evidence of
his motivations or the threat to privacy. For the jurors, they could simply
be faced with some Australian guy who helped with passwords in hacking
national security information. It would be like trying a man for breaking
and entering while barring evidence that the house was on fire and he
thought he was rescuing people instead.

They will punish Assange for their sins

The key to prosecuting Assange has always been to punish him without again
embarrassing the powerful figures made mockeries by his disclosures. That
means to keep him from discussing how the U.S. government concealed attacks
and huge civilian losses, the type of disclosures that were made in the
famous Pentagon Papers case. He cannot discuss how Democratic and
Republican members either were complicit or incompetent in their oversight.
He cannot discuss how the public was lied to about the program.

A glimpse of that artificial scope was seen within minutes of the arrest.
CNN brought on its national security analyst, James Clapper, former
director of national intelligence. CNN never mentioned that Clapper was accused
of perjury
<https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/01/19/james-clappers-perjury-dc-made-men-dont-get-charged-lying-congress-jonathan-turley-column/1045991001/>
in
denying the existence of the National Security Agency surveillance program
and was personally implicated in the scandal that WikiLeaks triggered.

Clapper was asked directly before Congress, “Does the NSA collect any type
of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?”

Clapper responded, “No, sir. … Not wittingly
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/james-clappers-least-untruthful-statement-to-the-senate/2013/06/11/e50677a8-d2d8-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_blog.html?utm_term=.8774c549ff9e>.”
Later, Clapper said his testimony was “the least untruthful” statement he
could make.

That would still make it a lie, of course, but this is Washington and
people like Clapper are untouchable. In the view of the establishment,
Assange is the problem.

Washington needs to silence Assange

So on CNN, Clapper was allowed to explain (without any hint of
self-awareness or contradiction) that Assange has “caused us all kinds of
grief in the intelligence community.” Indeed, few people seriously believe
that the government is aggrieved about password protection. The grief was
the disclosure operations and controversies long unknown to the American
people. Assange will be convicted of the felony of causing embarrassment in
the first degree.

Notably, no one went to jail or was fired for the surveillance programs.
Those in charge of failed congressional oversight were reelected. Clapper
was never charged with perjury. Even figures shown to have lied in the
Clinton emails, like former CNN commentator Donna Brazile (who lied about
giving Clinton’s campaign questions in advance
<https://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/donna-brazile-hillary-clinton-leak-regret-236184>
of
the presidential debates), are now back on television. Assange, however,
could well do time.

With Assange’s extradition, all will be well again in Washington. As
Sen. Manchin declared, Assange is their “property” and will be punished for
his sins. Once he is hoisted as a wretch, few will again entertain such
hubris in the future.

*Jonathan Turley, a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors, is the
Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University.
Follow him on Twitter: @JonathanTurley
<https://twitter.com/JonathanTurley?lang=en>*

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