Assange Secretly Charged by U.S., Sealed Court Documents Reveal in Copy-Paste Bungle

A lazy copy-paste mistake from prosecutors shows the U.S. has or intends to charge and prosecute Julian Assange. United States Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger submitted a document in August for one case against someone named Kokayi, but apparently was working with a document from another case about Assange.

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The slip-up talks of arresting Assange:

The complaint, supporting affidavit, and arrest warrant, as well as this motion and the proposed order, would need to remain sealed until Assange is arrested in connection with the charges in the criminal complaint and can therefore no longer evade or avoid arrest and extradition in this matter.

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This was uncovered late Thursday. Joshua Stueve, a spokesman for the United States attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia, says "The court filing was made in error. That was not the intended name for this filing." That much seems obvious.

Apparently, federal prosecutors often use documents from other cases as a template to start a new case, and just replace some of the words like defendant's names. The federal prosecutor's office used a secret document for charges against Julian Assange, and replaced Assange's name but got sloppy and missed 2 instances.

This screw up has tipped the hands of the Justice Department. It seems like Assange will be charged, it's only a matter of time. The specifics of the criminal charges are uncertain as of yet. The document speaks of keeping the matter secret "under seal" in order "to protect this investigation". They want to keep the matter confidential as they work on a case to charge Assange with:

The United States has considered alternatives less drastic than sealing, including, for example, the possibility of redactions, and has determined that none would suffice to protect this investigation. Another procedure short of sealing will not adequately protect the needs of law enforcement at this time because, due to the sophistication of the defendant and the publicity surrounding the case, no other procedure is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged.

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If what we assume is correct, that this was a copy-paste with only parts changed, then it's a "that Assange has been charged". It could be that there was only a draft created at the time which was copied for use in another case. But it seems that if charges have not already been filed in secret while the investigation continues, they soon will be.

FBI Director James Comey also mentioned charges coming against Assange when he was testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. He was being pressed by Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) on why Assange hasn't been charged yet. Comey replied:

"He hasn’t been apprehended because he’s inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London... WikiLeaks is an important focus of our attention."

While Department of Justice has previously stated their position on the Espionage Act, that:

... newsgathering and legitimate news reporting is not covered, is not going to be investigated or prosecuted as a criminal act.

Our focus is and should be on the leakers, not those [who] are obtaining it as part of legitimate newsgathering.

But Comey said "a huge portion of WikiLeak’s activities has nothing to do with legitimate newsgathering, informing the public, commenting on important controversies, but is simply about releasing classified information to damage the United States of America."

The blunder from the United States attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia is the first we've seen of charges being prepared. If the documents have been filed and not a draft, the charges are still secret "under seal" and Assange is in imminent threat of being extradited to the U.S. for prosecution under bullshit Espionage Act charges. He's not even an American citizen or living in the U.S. It's all a big legal manipulation to justify silencing Assange and WikiLeaks.

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Assanges lawyer in the United States, Barry Pollack, has spoken of this troubling news:

"The news that criminal charges have apparently been filed against Mr. Assange is even more troubling than the haphazard manner in which that information has been revealed. The government bringing criminal charges against someone for publishing truthful information is a dangerous path for a democracy to take."

"We have not been informed that Mr. Assange has been charged or the nature of any charges. We have simply seen what the government filed in an unrelated case saying that Mr. Assange has been charged."

Obama's DoJ previously looked at "criminally charging Assange and WikiLeaks for publishing classified information". They concluded they would not, and could not, do it because of the press freedom "guarantee of the First Amendment". If they did, this would pose a threat to other media like the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian and others who have published classified documents as well.

Many republicans dislike Assange and WikiLeaks for disclosing classified information, and many democrats dislike him for publishing the Clinton emails. He has enemies on both sides of the political aisle in the U.S. These authoritarians would very much like to see him behind bars and suffer for revealing U.S. war crimes or exposing corruption in the Democratic Party. They don't care about press freedom. The tyrannical mindsets of the two main political parties seem to be uniting on this issue.

Even the mainstream press has people who denounce Assange and Wikileaks, gleefully calling for his arrest and imprisonment. They all talk about press freedom, and the ill treatment of journalist in Saudi Arabia or Turkey, but when their own political attachments are threatened, they through freedom of the press under the bus in favor of stopping any potential future embarrassments.

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References:

• Cut-and-paste error apparently reveals federal charges against Assange
• Justice Department mistakenly reveals indictment against Wikileaks' Julian Assange
• Julian Assange Is Secretly Charged in U.S., Prosecutors Mistakenly Reveal
• The Constitutional Rubicon of an Assange Prosecution

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Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.

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