Biden administration plans to continue to seek extradition of WikiLeaks' Assange - official

By Mark Hosenball

 

FILE PHOTO: WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange leaves Westminster Magistrates Court in London, Britain January 13, 2020. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File Photo

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's administration plans to continue to seek to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from the United Kingdom to the United States to face hacking conspiracy charges, the U.S. Justice Department said.

 

Justice Department spokesman Marc Raimondi on Tuesday said the U.S. government will continue to challenge a British judge's ruling last month that Assange should not be extradited to the United States because of the risk he would commit suicide.

 

In a Jan. 4 ruling, the judge, Vanessa Baraitser, said, "I find that the mental condition of Mr. Assange is such that it would be oppressive to extradite him to the United States of America."

 

The British judge set Friday as a deadline for the United States to appeal her ruling forbidding Assange's extradition.

 

Raimondi said the United States will challenge Baraitser's ruling. "We continue to seek his extradition."

 

WikiLeaks drew fury from the U.S. government after publishing thousands of pages of once-secret reports and documents generated by American military and intelligence agencies, including detailed descriptions of CIA hacking capabilities.

 

WikiLeaks also published emails hacked from Democrat Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign and a key adviser, which Clinton and some of her supporters say was a factor in her election defeat to Republican Donald Trump.

 

Debate over possible American moves to seek Assange's extradition from Britain first arose nearly a decade ago when Barack Obama served as president and Joe Biden as his vice president.

 

Obama's Justice Department decided not to seek Assange's extradition on the grounds that what Assange and WikiLeaks did was too similar to journalistic activities protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

 

Trump administration officials stepped up public criticism of Assange and WikiLeaks only weeks after taking office in January 2017 and subsequently filed a series of increasingly harsh criminal charges accusing Assange of participating in a hacking conspiracy.

 

Assange supporters have been pressing the Biden administration to drop charges against him during Biden's first 100 days in the White House.

 

(Reporting By Mark Hosenball; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-02-10

 

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So vindictive. Poor Assange, hasn't he suffered enough? 

16 minutes ago, SunnyinBangrak said:

So vindictive. Poor Assange, hasn't he suffered enough? 

No, he deserves locking up, best place for him, he spent years avoiding facing up to what he did, let him rot in jail.

32 minutes ago, SunnyinBangrak said:

So vindictive. Poor Assange, hasn't he suffered enough? 

No. He ruined many lives. He needs to stand trial for what he did. That's the American way. Let a jury decide his fate after a fair trial.

Good I hope we get our hands on him and he serves a good loooooogggggggg stretch 

why not do an exchange deal for the hit and run killer?

the likes of assange exposes human and specifically organizations filthy nature, like for instance climategate.

he should be awarded nobels peace price

American hypocrisy as it is. Especially in comparison with the Navalniy case.

43 minutes ago, scammed said:

the likes of assange exposes human and specifically organizations filthy nature, like for instance climategate.

he should be awarded nobels peace price

Stop posting conspiracy theories.  Assange put lives at risk. Sad you are ok with that. Terrible.

 

https://www.factcheck.org/2009/12/climategate/

Assume many thought that the past president would pardon assange.

 

Maybe swap Anne Scoolas for assange? ????

 

Let's wait and see how aggressively the DoJ carries on the fight to extradite assange. My guess is that this won't be a priority for the DoJ, assuming Merrick Garland is ever approved.

 

Feel free to un-bunch your panties. and un-clutch your pearls.

5 hours ago, scammed said:

the likes of assange exposes human and specifically organizations filthy nature, like for instance climategate.

he should be awarded nobels peace price

You would have a valid point if he just stuck to the US atrocities like the chopper hit on the innocent Iraqis I think they were. But he went far beyond that releasing information that put Americans at risk.
Well done Biden for holding strong on his extradition.

1 hour ago, Roadman said:

You would have a valid point if he just stuck to the US atrocities like the chopper hit on the innocent Iraqis I think they were. But he went far beyond that releasing information that put Americans at risk.
Well done Biden for holding strong on his extradition.

tbh i am not well read up on the topic,

what put americans at risk ?

14 minutes ago, scammed said:

tbh i am not well read up on the topic,

what put americans at risk ?

Don't you know it?? It puts American and journalists from all over the world at risk, as they cannot reveal the the truth about criminal acts of governments, without being haunted and incarcerated. There goes the right of information, free speech and publishing.

9 hours ago, colinneil said:

No, he deserves locking up, best place for him, he spent years avoiding facing up to what he did, let him rot in jail.

Huh? He was avoiding extradition to sweden for something he has never been charged with.

Biden will screw up his chance of undoing the worlds view of Trumps America

Just now, Sujo said:

Huh? He was avoiding extradition to sweden for something he has never been charged with.

A man would stand up and defend himself properly , not hide skullking away like a fugitive.

2 hours ago, Roadman said:

You would have a valid point if he just stuck to the US atrocities like the chopper hit on the innocent Iraqis I think they were. But he went far beyond that releasing information that put Americans at risk.
Well done Biden for holding strong on his extradition.

Newspapers published them.

No Americans were killed because of the release.

 

The only issue for him is if he helped manning get the stuff. Otherwise its nothing.

1 minute ago, colinneil said:

A man would stand up and defend himself properly , not hide skullking away like a fugitive.

What did he have to defend. He was never charged. He even asked the prosecutor for permission to leave sweden.

 

And as it turns out he was correct when he refused to go back to be questioned for fear the US would extradite him.

 

Which the US lied about.

so much for Biden to change things, we in the EU should expect the worst out of the Biden administration in terms of foreign relations and foreign policies.

5 minutes ago, Sujo said:

What did he have to defend. He was never charged. He even asked the prosecutor for permission to leave sweden.

 

And as it turns out he was correct when he refused to go back to be questioned for fear the US would extradite him.

 

Which the US lied about.

Try to defend him all you want, he is in jail, where he belongs.

they want to make an example out of him, to scare off any other wistleblowers, because they are doing far worse things that can't be disclosed. Mother RUSSIA would be proud ????

 

that said, Assange should have taken the opportunity to make a name for himself, and go to trial and confront his accusers, instead of being a coward and doing a runner. I bet he would be acquited by now. But his only concern was Gitmo, so tough call.

22 minutes ago, colinneil said:

Try to defend him all you want, he is in jail, where he belongs.

Im not defending him. If he is guilty of conspiring with manning by assisting him then he belongs in jail.

 

What i am defending is the truth. You said he should defend himself instead of hiding. He didnt need to defend himself because when he got asylum he wasnt charged, sweden never charged him with anything.

 

Only at the eleventh hour did US step in with charges and he is in jail for that pending extradition.

 

So he hasnt run or hidden from anything, and disputing extradition is a legal right. So in that respect yes he is defending himself.

 

Or do you think he has less rights than others?

The greatest danger to the American folk and the world is the America administration,

not Assange

 

1 hour ago, fxe1200 said:

Don't you know it?? It puts American and journalists from all over the world at risk, as they cannot reveal the the truth about criminal acts of governments, without being haunted and incarcerated. There goes the right of information, free speech and publishing.

We don't have free speech. Do some research on this.

3 minutes ago, Jeffr2 said:

We don't have free speech. Do some research on this.

And yet the US never prosecuted any media outlet that published the information.

22 minutes ago, Sujo said:

And yet the US never prosecuted any media outlet that published the information.

Section 230 is to blame. But a reckoning may be coming with the billion dollar lawsuits from Dominion. We'll see.

33 minutes ago, talahtnut said:

The greatest danger to the American folk and the world is the America administration,

not Assange

 

True under Trump. But Assange has to face his charges. If he did this in the beginning, he'd probably be a free man by now.

8 minutes ago, Jeffr2 said:

True under Trump. But Assange has to face his charges. If he did this in the beginning, he'd probably be a free man by now.

I doubt that. It wasnt that long ago he was charged. He is being held in custody now so this time he is in jail will be taken off his jail time on sentence.

 

I doubt a sentence will be less than a couple of years. More like 20.

So much noise about nothing--so Biden trying to prove he is as tough as Trump and reality is United States is dictatorship so its okay.

Innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law--keep dreaming.

Disappointing. He's been persecuted and locked up long enough for crimes he didn't even commit. Time to let him return home!