Accused hacker and leaker of classified materials Julian Assange who called out the Obama administration and has been accused of leaking the Hillary emails leading up to the election has been arrested in Britain and charged by the United States.
Assange is also accused of conspiring with Chelsea Manning, known as Bradley at the time, to leak classified information about the U.S. government and military.
According to Fox News:
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was charged Thursday with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for aiding Chelsea Manning in the cracking of a password to a classified U.S. government computer in 2010, the U.S. Justice Department announced hours after Assange’s arrest in London.
Assange is accused of engaging in a conspiracy with Manning, the former U.S. Army analyst, in breaking a password stored on a U.S. Defense Department computer connected to a U.S. government computer network for classified documents and communications, the Justice Department said. Manning later transmitted a trove of classified government files to Assange, whose website posted the materials to a worldwide audience. Cracking the password allowed Manning to use a different username “rather than her own,” officials said.
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Assange had previously held an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity ahead of Trump’s inauguration in 2017.
He argued that the Obama administration was pushing the narrative of Russia meddling in the U.S. election to delegitimize then-President-elect Donald Trump. He also claimed he wasn’t the source for the hacked emails he released from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
Wikileaks and Edward Snowden an accused traitor have responded to the arrest, as well.
This man is a son, a father, a brother. He has won dozens of journalism awards. He’s been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year since 2010. Powerful actors, including CIA, are engaged in a sophisticated effort to dehumanise, delegitimize and imprison him. #ProtectJulian pic.twitter.com/dVBf1EcMa5
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 11, 2019
Images of Ecuador’s ambassador inviting the UK’s secret police into the embassy to drag a publisher of–like it or not–award-winning journalism out of the building are going to end up in the history books. Assange’s critics may cheer, but this is a dark moment for press freedom. https://t.co/ys1AIdh2FP
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) April 11, 2019
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
Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May also responded saying that this arrest proves that no one is above the law.
The argument will continue as to whether Assange was a champion of transparency or an enemy of the state.
