Greenwald Slams Assange Extradition Charges: 'It's The Criminalization of Journalism'

Chris Menahan
InformationLiberation
Apr. 11, 2019

Glenn Greenwald on Thursday slammed the Department of Justice's charges filed against Julian Assange in an attempt to get him extradited and said it amounts to the "criminalization of journalism."

"The DOJ says part of what Assange did to justify his prosecution - beyond allegedly helping Manning get the documents - is he encouraged Manning to get more docs for him to publish," Greenwald tweeted. "Journalists do this with sources constantly: it's the criminalization of journalism."

The DOJ says part of what Assange did to justify his prosecution - beyond allegedly helping Manning get the documents - is he encouraged Manning to get more docs for him to publish. Journalists do this with sources constantly: it's the criminalization of journalism pic.twitter.com/GXNjWlkFZw
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 11, 2019

Obama DOJ tried to concoct a theory to justify arresting Assange for more than merely publishing docs: such as claiming he aided Manning in the the theft of docs. They found no evidence for it. Trump DOJ will likely manufacture some falsehood to claim it's more than publishing.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 11, 2019

Here's a 2013 WPost article explaining why Obama DOJ - not exactly a vigorous defender of press freedoms - concluded that prosecuting WL & Assange would pose a serious threat to press freedom. How could you also not prosecute NYT & Guardian for the same? https://t.co/nO40fRdzM7
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 11, 2019

While it's true in theory, the New York Times and the Guardian will never be prosecuted because they're pushing the prog-globalist agenda. All these rules are only for little people who threaten the establishment.

The weakness of the US charge against Assange is shocking. The allegation he tried (and failed?) to help crack a password during their world-famous reporting has been public for nearly a decade: it is the count Obama's DOJ refused to charge, saying it endangered journalism. https://t.co/xdTQ8xauB0
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) April 11, 2019

Greenwald also highlighted how media hacks are cheering Assange's persecution:

I'm not surprised to see NBC journalists uniting behind Trump DOJ to justify the criminalization of WikiLeaks - NBC is fully aligned with the CIA/NSA long obsessed with destroying WL - but this tweet is false: the indictment also charges Assange with *encouraging* his source: https://t.co/pvJHVvea0K
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 11, 2019

US journalists have long hated WikiLeaks because they have published stories of far greater importance & impact than most of those journalists in the lifetime will ever publish, all without being part of their little club. But to cheer the Trump DOJ prosecution is just grotesque.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 11, 2019

NBC News made the decision to hire a team of former military & intelligence officials to "report" & "analyze" the news - starting with the highly compromised ex-CIA DIrector now on its payroll - and as a result the have full-on fascists & authoritarians saying things like this: pic.twitter.com/d3jm10ut4a
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 11, 2019

NBC is the official organ of whatever you call it: the military-industrial complex, the Deep State, the Blob. I'm glad they made it official by putting CIA & intel officials on their payroll. The above psychopathic tweet is what you'd expect to hear at Langley, not a news outlet.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 11, 2019

Aaron Mate also laid out how flimsy the charges are against Assange:

Due to the use of the conditional tense & the fact that prosecutors don't claim the password was cracked, it looks like this alleged "password-cracking agreement" between Assange & Manning -- the crime Assange is accused of -- wasn't even successful. (https://t.co/K1T8OLNcAk) pic.twitter.com/tqFOo4yvBu
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) April 11, 2019

If Assange is only being charged for allegedly trying to crack a password, is that a tacit recognition that they can't actually charge him for receiving those classified records that "Manning had already provided" to him? pic.twitter.com/8tSmcg8dM0
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) April 11, 2019

What's going on here looks pretty obvious to me: DOJ knew they couldn't get Assange on receiving or publishing the material that "Manning had already provided," so they went after him on a "password-cracking agreement" that looks like it wasn't even successful. pic.twitter.com/JKy8x80E6s
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) April 11, 2019

Note also the lone example of Assange encouraging Manning: "curious eyes never run dry in my experience." By then writing "Following this..." is the DOJ trying to suggest Assange spurred Manning to "download the U.S. Dept. of State cables that Wikileaks later released publicly"? pic.twitter.com/1Ftwt3lcA0
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) April 11, 2019

I suspect they're going light on charges to get him extradited and they'll pile on more charges once he's actually in the US.

Any excuse will do.

As Ann Coulter suggested, there's no way in hell any of this would be happening if Assange exposed Donald Trump's emails instead of Hillary Clinton's (he'd probably be getting awards).

Is there any possibility this would be happening if Wikileaks had published emails embarrassing to Trump, instead of emails embarrassing to the Democrats? https://t.co/zp0UdpsGTC
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) April 11, 2019

CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou said there's no chance Assange will get a fair trial in the Eastern District of Virginia under Judge Leonie Brinkema:

A fair trial in the Eastern District of Virginia, under Judge Leonie Brinkema, is utterly impossible. They don't call EDVA the "Espionage Court" for nothing. https://t.co/U6gVq2FpcB
— John Kiriakou (@JohnKiriakou) April 11, 2019

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