The US president says WikiLeaks is ‘not my thing’, despite frequently applauding the organization during 2016 campaign
Australia’s foreign minister, Marise Payne, has been asked by reporters about Julian Assange.
She says that Assange, as an Australian citizen, will receive consular assistance, as any other citizen would if facing arrest in a foreign country and that consular representatives will meet with Assange today.
Payne was asked whether the Australian government would seek guarantees that Assange would not be extradited to a state where he might face the death penalty. She said that while Australia continues to vehemently oppose the death penalty, Assange’s potential extradition to the US is an issue between the UK and the US.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters that the country will not intervene on Assange’s behalf or block his extradition to the United States.
“When Australians travel overseas and find themselves in difficulty with the law, they face the judicial systems of those countries,” Morrison said. The WikiLeaks founder will receive the same assistance Australia offers all its citizens when they break laws abroad, he added.
PM says here was a request for assistance and that was responded to. "He won't be getting special treatment from Australia"
— Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) April 11, 2019
Despite his assertions that he doesn’t know much about WikiLeaks, Trump reportedly brought it up 145 times in the last month of his campaign alone.
President Trump: "I know nothing about WikiLeaks. It's not my thing."
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 11, 2019
During the 2016 campaign, Trump called WikiLeaks "a treasure trove" and said, "I love WikiLeaks" https://t.co/NCSMbHH8L6 pic.twitter.com/RjKmQT9pCH
CSPAN has 44 examples pulled from debates and rallies.
Q: How many times has President Trump said "WikiLeaks" on C-SPAN according to our video library?
— Jeremy Art (@cspanJeremy) April 11, 2019
A: 44.
Find them all, from debates with Hillary Clinton to campaign rallies, here: https://t.co/r8cSKJlKwA pic.twitter.com/f5SFCcFtTi
Assange’s lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, appeared on BBC this evening, to argue why her client’s arrest set a “dangerous precedent” that should concern free speech advocates.
Julian Assange’s lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, says his arrest today is “a free speech issue” because it “is all about the ways in which journalists can communicate with their sources”#newsnight | @suigenerisjen pic.twitter.com/ZHYMQJFCht
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) April 11, 2019
The arrest has sparked alarm among some organizations who fear that the charges filed by the US Department of Justice could also be used against journalists.
It's true, the indictment doesn't attempt to make publishing a crime. That's obviously a good thing. But the ENTIRE thing is based on a journalist's interactions and discussions with a source. No other action is alleged. So it's still worrying to me.
— Trevor Timm (@trevortimm) April 11, 2019
The Columbia Journalism Review warned that “going forward, journalists will need to be vigilant” citing the “serious implications” of Assange’s arrest and the charges against him.
wild that people replying to this kind of stuff with "assange is not a journalist" don't seem to realize that the government could easily make that same argument for nearly anyone https://t.co/60HyJXqV63
— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) April 11, 2019
But some legal experts argued that the specificity of the charge is intended to not infringe on First Amendment Rights granted to journalists in the US.
“A lot of the broader legal and policy implications have been alleviated by how narrowly tailored this indictment is,” Bradley Moss, a national security lawyer in Washington who represents whistleblowers and journalists told Reuters.
Robert Chesney, a professor of national security law, agrees, explaining that the charge is more closely tied to hacking than to journalism.
Per Reuters:
Prosecutors will emphasize that cracking a password is far outside the realm of what respectable journalists do, Chesney at the University of Texas said.
‘All of this turns on the idea that Assange tries to hack a password,’ Chesney said. ‘That’s not journalism, that’s theft’”.
After Assange’s arrest many people were expecting news about his feline friend, who had been seen throughout the years posing for social media photos and peering out of windows of the Ecuadorian embassy.
But, turns out, Embassy Cat, had left long ago.
For the record: Julian Assange’s cat was reportedly given to a shelter by the Ecuadorian embassy ages ago, so don’t expect a feline extradition in the next few hours.
— James Ball (@jamesrbuk) April 11, 2019
(I genuinely offered to adopt it)
Embassy Cat, whose twitter bio (where he is followed by more than 31K people) says it lives with Assange and is interested in “counter-purrveillance” was reportedly ousted after Ecuadorian officials told Assange he’d have to provide and pay for its care.
#catalonia #catalunya #catexit #10ODeclaració pic.twitter.com/I0zgRb2oUj
— Embassy Cat (@EmbassyCat) October 10, 2017
Gabrielle Canon here taking over for Tom McCarthy.
Tulsi Gabbard weighed in this afternoon, on the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, tweeting that it sent a censorship signal out to political critics.
The arrest of #JulianAssange is meant to send a message to all Americans and journalists: be quiet, behave, toe the line. Or you will pay the price.
— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) April 11, 2019
The US presidential candidate has defended Assange before. At a meet-and-greet in New Hampshire in February, she told a crowd that WikiLeaks “spurred some necessary change”.
US presidential candidate @TulsiGabbard this evening: WikiLeaks spurred 'necessary change'
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) February 17, 2019
Background: https://t.co/u9e5ecXLDKpic.twitter.com/c4d98sQraV
For more on US politics, follow along with today’s updates here:
The charges that led to Julian Assange’s arrest have nothing to do with the 2016 presidential election or the Mueller investigation into Donald Trump’s Russian ties, but the extradition case and Assange’s possible arrival in the US will be electrified by all those unresolved issues.
“I know nothing about Wikileaks. It’s not my thing,” Donald Trump told reporters asking for a reaction to the arrest. That is not what he said on the campaign, when he frequently praised the organisation that Assange founded, and which arguably played an important role in getting Trump elected.
Assange’s role in 2016 cut like a meat cleaver through the administration, dividing Trump loyalists on the far right – who see him as a hero persecuted by the “deep state” – from the traditional conservatives who portray him as nothing less than a Kremlin accomplice.
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