President Trump has cleared the path for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to enter the United States without fear of arrest or deportation.
The exoneration comes after days of unexpected and unusual developments surrounding Assange.
On Tuesday, Wikileaks posted a tweet announcing that the U.S. government had finally ended its eight-year-long grand jury proceedings against WikiLeaks – proceedings which were initiated by the Obama administration.
US government on why it has decided to close its eight year long grand jury proceedings against @WikiLeaks (expanded in 2017 to cover our series on the CIA). Wait, what? twitter.com/StateDept/stat…
Infowars.com reports: The WikiLeaks tweet referenced a State Department press conference held that day, Jan. 2, 2018, in which State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert made a strong statement regarding freedom of speech that was couched in a reference to Iran.
.@statedeptspox: We support a freedom of the press. When a nation clamps down on social media, we ask the question — what are you afraid of? We support the people of #Iran, and we support their voices being heard.
The WikiLeaks tweet confirmed the State Department’s reference to freedom of speech in Iran was a coded communication intended to extend the umbrella of free speech and press rights to WikiLeaks in a clear reversal of the policy in which both CIA Director Mike Pompeo and Attorney General Sessions have argued that arresting Julian Assange is a priority. It is not clear that Assange has violated national security laws, even if it can be shown he published U.S. national security classified documents.
Specifically, Nauert said the following:
“We support a freedom of the press here in the United States. We support the right of voices to be heard. And when a nation clamps down on social media or websites or Google or news sites, we ask the question, “What are you afraid of?” What are you afraid of? We support the Iranian people and we support their voices being heard.”
Trump’s attorneys argue Assange’s First Amendment right to publish
In a motion filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Dec. 29, 2017, in the case Roy Cockrum vs. Donald J. Trump for President, Trump’s attorneys argued that Julian Assange had a right under the First Amendment to publish the DNC and John Podesta emails, even if the emails were stolen.
The case was orchestrated by Project Democracy, a group run by former attorneys from the Obama administration, arguing that then former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone had conspired with the Russians to publish the DNC and Podesta emails.
In a 32-page motion defending the Trump Campaign, Michael A. Carvin of the Jones Day law firm and attorney of record representing President Trump, argued that the Trump campaign, and by inference Julian Assange at WikiLeaks, could not be held liable under the First Amendment for a disclosure of stolen information if the information published involves “a matter of public interest” and the speaker was not “involved” in the theft.
In making the argument, Trump’s attorneys relied upon Bartnicki v. Vopper. 532 U.S. 514 (2001), a labor union case in which the Supreme Court ruled a radio station had the right to broadcast a stolen tape of a phone call between the chief union negotiator for a Pennsylvania high school and the chief union negotiator together with the union president.
Technically, Assange has not yet been indicted of any criminal offense in the United States, nor is it clear if he committed any crime. Under the Supreme Court Decisions New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964), and in the Pentagon Papers case, New York Times v. U.S. 403 U.S. 713 (1971), a journalist is allowed to accept and publish classified documents provided by other sources.
While Roger Stone’s case is still pending in the District of Columbia District Court, the opinion submitted by President Trump’s attorneys can be seen to have established the basis for pardoning Assange as a pre-condition of allowing Assange to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy in London without U.S. federal authorities seeking to arrest him.
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