The Biden administration “threw in the towel” over its fight with Julian Assange because it did not believe a Labour government would extradite him, the WikiLeaks founder’s former legal adviser has said.
Geoffrey Robertson KC, who mentored Sir Keir Starmer when he was a young barrister, told The Telegraph that American prosecutors knew they “couldn’t rely on” a Starmer administration to put Assange on a flight across the Atlantic.
Mr Robertson, the head of the legal chambers that has represented Assange in his battle with the US legal system, said other political factors were also at play, including pressure from Assange’s native Australia after a change of government two years ago.
Another key factor in resolving the case, Mr Robertson said, was the support for a plea bargain deal from Caroline Kennedy, the influential US ambassador to Australia.
Assange was released from Belmarsh prison in London on Monday after a deal was agreed under which he will travel to the Northern Mariana Islands, where he will plead guilty to a single charge under the Espionage Act and will be sentenced to time served. He will then fly to Australia as a free man and meet up with his wife and children.
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Ron Paul, floor of the House Congress, during Obama Admin:
"If WikiLeaks is to be prosecuted for publishing classified documents, then why shouldn't the WashPost, NYT and others that have published these same documents be prosecuted"?
@YouthfulButterflyGreen2yrs2Y
One of Assange's most important innovations was the creation of a system that enabled digital leaking while protecting the source's anonymity.
Today, every major US outlet has copied him and has that system.
The difference is they're controllable by the USG and Assange wasn't.
@MotivatedDiplomacyGreen2yrs2Y
Rational argument.
Seems to me that there was a double standard applied to Assange because he was the guy who found the data.
They will prosecute Journalists. They won't prosecute controlled activists who pose as Journalists.
If Assange was persecuted for exposing terrible crimes and atrocites committed by the US government, shouldn't the perpetrators of these crimes and atrocities be pleading guilty to something?
I know that sounds bizarre, but I'm just spit balling here.
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