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Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., is bringing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, as his guest to President Biden’s State of the Union handle, as the Biden administration continues to pursue the prosecution of Assange for publishing labeled U.S. paperwork.
“It is a real honor to be a guest of Rep. Massie,” Shipton advised Fox News Digital. “He is steadfast in his calls for the prosecution of Julian to be let go, and very clear about what’s at stake in this unprecedented indictment of a publisher for sharing information in the public interest.”
The potential last attraction for Assange difficult his extradition from the U.Okay. to the U.S. wrapped up final month earlier than the British High Court in London, with the Australian writer not showing in courtroom due to well being causes.
Assange, 52, is charged in reference to WikiLeaks’ 2010 publication of labeled U.S. navy paperwork leaked by U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. Assange is dealing with 17 prices for allegedly receiving, possessing and speaking labeled data to the public below the Espionage Act, and one cost alleging a conspiracy to commit pc intrusion.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., is bringing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton (pictured), as his guest to President Biden’s State of the Union handle. (Getty Images)
Biden will ship the State of the Union handle on Thursday at 9 p.m.
“I hope it can bring attention to the injustice being perpetrated against Julian Assange and that maybe the president will realize there is nothing to be gained from continuing this attack against the First Amendment and discontinue it immediately so Julian can return to his wife and two young children,” Shipton advised Fox News Digital.
The prices had been introduced by the Trump administration’s Justice Department over WikiLeaks’ 2010 publication of cables leaked by Manning detailing battle crimes dedicated by the U.S. authorities in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention camp. The supplies additionally uncovered cases of the CIA participating in torture and rendition.
WikiLeaks’ “Collateral Murder” video displaying the U.S. navy gunning down civilians in Iraq, together with two Reuters journalists, was additionally printed 14 years in the past.
Assange has been held at London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison since he was faraway from the Ecuadorian Embassy on April 11, 2019, for breaching bail situations. He had sought asylum at the embassy since 2012 to keep away from being despatched to Sweden over allegations he raped two girls as a result of Sweden wouldn’t present assurances it might shield him from extradition to the U.S. The investigations into the sexual assault allegations had been finally dropped.
A U.Okay. District Judge rejected the U.S. extradition request in 2021 on the grounds that Assange was possible to kill himself if he was held below harsh U.S. jail situations. Higher courts later overturned that call after receiving assurances from the U.S. about his remedy, and the British authorities signed an extradition order in June 2022.
While February’s listening to could possibly be Assange’s last attraction trying to block his extradition to the U.S., a full attraction listening to may are available the future if the judges rule in his favor. If he loses this attraction, nonetheless, Assange’s solely remaining choice can be at the European Court of Human Rights. The judges who heard arguments in the two-day listening to mentioned they’d take time to attain a verdict.
Should he be extradited to the U.S. after exhausting all his authorized appeals, Assange would face trial in Alexandria, Virginia, and could possibly be sentenced to up to 175 years in an American maximum-security jail. His supporters have argued that he wouldn’t obtain a good trial if he’s extradited.
“The U.S. government’s ongoing effort to prosecute Julian Assange threatens the First Amendment rights of Americans and should be opposed,” Massie mentioned in an announcement. “During his term in office, I asked President Trump to pardon Mr. Assange, and I was disappointed by his failure to do so. President Biden should drop the criminal charges currently being pursued by the Department of Justice. I am pleased Mr. Shipton has accepted my invitation to join me at the State of the Union.”
The Obama administration in 2013 determined not to indict Assange over WikiLeaks’ 2010 publication of labeled cables as a result of it might have had to additionally indict journalists from main information shops who printed the identical supplies, which has been described as “The New York Times problem.” Former President Obama additionally commuted Manning’s 35-year sentence for violations of the Espionage Act and different offenses to seven years in January 2017, and Manning, who had been imprisoned since 2010, was launched later that yr.
But the Justice Department below former President Trump later moved to indict Assange below the Espionage Act, and the Biden administration has continued to pursue his prosecution.
Rep. Massie referred to as on the Biden administration to drop the prices towards Julian Assange. (Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)
Shipton’s attendance at the State of the Union comes after Massie and Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., led a bipartisan letter despatched to Biden in November urging him to “withdraw the U.S. extradition request currently pending against Australian publisher Julian Assange and halt all prosecutorial proceedings against him as soon as possible.”
The letter was signed by 16 lawmakers on Capitol Hill, together with Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.; Paul Gosar, R-Ariz.; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Cori Bush, D-Mo.; Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
Massie has additionally beforehand sponsored bipartisan laws to reform the Espionage Act and shield whistleblowers and journalists.
Assange’s spouse, Stella, has mentioned that her husband’s life is in danger day-after-day he stays in jail and that she believes he’ll die if he is extradited to the U.S.
Last month, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards, referred to as on the U.Okay. authorities to halt the potential U.S. extradition of Assange over considerations that he can be in danger of remedy amounting to torture or different varieties of ill-treatment or punishment if he’s extradited. U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, Irene Khan, additionally expressed final week that Assange’s prosecution units a harmful precedent for investigative journalism.
In January, a bunch of Australian lawmakers wrote a letter to U.Okay. Home Secretary James Cleverly demanding Assange’s U.S. extradition be halted over considerations about his security and well-being, urging the U.Okay. authorities to as an alternative make an unbiased evaluation of Assange’s danger of persecution.
Additional efforts have been made by lawmakers in the U.S. and Assange’s residence nation of Australia in the final yr to demand his freedom, together with a vote final month wherein the Australian Parliament overwhelmingly supported calling on the U.S. and U.Okay. Governments to finish Assange’s prosecution and a decision launched in January in the U.S. House calling for him to be launched.
Assange is dealing with 17 prices for allegedly receiving, possessing and speaking labeled data to the public below the Espionage Act, and one cost alleging a conspiracy to commit pc intrusion. (Getty Images)
One of Assange’s legal professionals, Mark Summers, mentioned throughout final month’s listening to that there was proof displaying there had been a plan crafted by the Trump administration’s CIA to kidnap or homicide Assange whereas he was in the Ecuadorean Embassy and that former President Trump had requested “detailed options” to kill him.
The CIA below the Trump administration allegedly had plans to kill Assange over the publication of delicate company hacking instruments identified as “Vault 7,” which had been leaked to WikiLeaks, Yahoo reported in 2021. The company mentioned the leak represented “the largest data loss in CIA history.”
The company was accused of having discussions “at the highest levels” of the administration about plans to assassinate Assange in London and allegedly acted upon orders from then-CIA director Mike Pompeo to draw up kill “sketches” and “options.” The CIA additionally had superior plans to kidnap and rendition Assange, and had made a political determination to cost him, in accordance to the Yahoo report.
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While he was in the embassy, the CIA was uncovered for spying on Assange and his legal professionals. A choose just lately dominated {that a} lawsuit introduced towards the CIA for spying on his guests can transfer ahead.
Assange is the first writer to be charged by the U.S. authorities below the Espionage Act, and plenty of press freedom teams have argued that his prosecution is meant to criminalize journalism.
In 2022, the editors and publishers of U.S. and European shops that labored with Assange on the publication of excerpts from the greater than 250,000 paperwork he obtained in the Cablegate leak – The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El País – wrote an open letter calling for the U.S. to drop the prices towards Assange.
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