US reportedly considering plea deal offer for Julian Assange (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 8 months ago by Rapidcreek@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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[-] ShellMonkey@lemmy.socdojo.com 29 points 8 months ago

I can't properly express the irony involved in the Trump administration looking to charge Assange (who some claims is a Russian actor, which in itself would put him and Trump on the same team) when the ex-president is now charged with the same line of indictments for keeping classified docs as bathroom reading material...

[-] Rapidcreek@lemmy.world 11 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Not quite. The big thing they have on Assange is that he helped Chelsea Manning break into US databases, which is not only a computer crime but espionage. In any case, according to the WSJ prosecutors see diminishing odds that he would serve much more time even if he were convicted in the US.

[-] phoneymouse@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

Well the threat of prosecution sure has made his life hell for a long time.

[-] ShellMonkey@lemmy.socdojo.com 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Yeah not exactly, but both in the same theme of possessing in one way or another docs they're not supposed to have.

[-] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 1 points 8 months ago

I think you could liken it to robbing a bank to obtain money versus scamming a bunch of elderly people to obtain money. Both give you the same end result but each crime is treated differently.

[-] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 10 points 8 months ago

If they are serious about it, this would be great for him. He has been kicked around for his “crime” enough to count towards his sentence.

[-] wurzelgummidge@lemmy.world 10 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Sounds to me like they don't really have anything on him but if they can get him to admit something they won't look so much like the bags of shit they really are.

[-] qevlarr@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

OP goes off the rails. Calm down, Javert. Assange was persecuted for his journalism. It's as clear as day

[-] Rapidcreek@lemmy.world -4 points 8 months ago

That's funny. And delusional.

[-] Linkerbaan@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

"When Exposing a Crime is Treated as Committing a Crime, You Are Ruled By Criminals."

[-] autotldr 4 points 8 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The US government is reported to be considering a plea deal offer to Julian Assange, allowing him to admit to a misdemeanor, but his lawyers say they have been “given no indication” Washington intends to change its approach.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the US justice department was looking at ways to cut short the long London court battle of the WikiLeaks founder against extradition to the US on espionage charges for the publication 14 years ago of thousands of classified US documents related to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

The report said a plan under consideration would be to drop the current 18 charges under the Espionage Act, if Assange pleaded guilty to mishandling classified documents, a misdemeanor offence.

The previous Democratic administration, under Barack Obama, ultimately decided not to charge Assange because of fears that doing so would infringe first amendment rights guaranteeing freedom of the press.

In 2019, the Trump administration pressed ahead with charges under the 1917 Espionage Act, seeking to differentiate conventional journalism from Assange’s actions, which provided a platform for the publication of leaked secret documents, and which prosecutors allege he knew would put lives in jeopardy.

In a hearing on Assange’s permission to appeal in February, his defence lawyers argued he could be targeted by US state agencies for “extra-legal attack elimination” if he were extradited, particularly given “the real possibility of a return of a Trump administration”.

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this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2024

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