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In Leaked Audio, Julian Assange Warns Clinton State Department Lawyer About Cables Stolen From WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange warned the Hillary Clinton-led State Department that a rogue employee had stolen a trove of classified cables from the whistleblower organization and was about to release it.
16 December, 2020
Leaked audio obtained by Project Veritas reveals that in 2011, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange warned the Hillary Clinton-led State Department that a rogue employee had stolen a trove of classified cables from the whistleblower organization and was about to release it.
Assange told State Department attorney Cliff Johnson that WikiLeaks had planned to release the cables with sensitive information redacted, and expressed concern over endangering people by what he believed to be a reckless release.
"Yes, so the situation is that we have intelligence that the State Department Database Archive of 250,000 diplomatic cables including declassified cables is being spread around and is to the degree that we believe that within the next few days it will become public," said Assange, adding "We're not sure but the timing could be imminently or within the next few days to a week and there may be some possibility to stop it."
State Department attorney Cliff Johnson: “Who would be releasing these cables? Is
this WikiLeaks?”
Julian Assange: “No, we would not be releasing them--this is Daniel Domscheit-Berg, a previous employee that we suspended last August.”
Johnson: “And he apparently has access to the material that Wikileaks also has?”
Assange: “Yes. That’s correct.”
Johnson: “And he has access to everything you have is that right?”
Assange: “That's correct.”
Johnson: “OK. And that includes classified as well as the unclassified cables.”
Assange: “That's correct.”
Listen to part of the 75-minute conversation:
"The thing that stands out throughout this tape is that over and over again, Assange expresses his concern for the people endangered by what he believes to be a reckless release—like when he told Johnson: ‘In case there are any individuals who haven't been warned that they should be warned.’," said Veritas founder James O'Keefe - adding "Political pressure is building for President Donald Trump to pardon Assange at the end of his first term and this tape goes a long way to rebooting how he has been portrayed."
State Department attorney thanks assange (more via Project Veritas):
Although Assange said to the attorney, he did not actually control the classified information, he did have the encryption key to unlock the materials and he knew where on the web it was being held.
“The material, there is an encrypted version of the materials on the web somewhere, that we do not control,” Assange said. “One doesn't actually need to convey the material itself, one only needs to convey the location of the material, and its encryption key.”
With Assange’s help, the journalist said he believed the U.S. government with its resources could corral the information in time to prevent its release or to even eliminate the files covertly.
“If there is another possibility which is the taking down of those files, that is a degree of research and effort that we do not have the capacity to do,” he said. “There are not so many of them.”
Cliff Johnson: “And, you know all the locations of them, do you think?”
Julian Assange: “We know several and it's probably not that hard to find the others.”
Johnson: “Can you provide us with that location information?”
Assange: “I can encourage other people to do so.”
Johnson: “Right. I appreciate what you've told us Mr. Assange.”
Assange’s work with Manning made him a fugitive from American justice
The Australian-born journalist has been targeted by the U.S. government since 2011, when he partnered with Pvt. Chelsea Manning, an Army intelligence specialist, to release documents and videos Manning downloaded from Army computers.
Manning pleaded guilty to violating the Espionage Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and accepted a 35-year sentence.
President Barack Obama commuted Manning’s sentence to time served, roughly seven years, Jan. 17, 2017—three days before the end of his term.
For many years, Assange was holed up in the Ecuador’s embassy in London, until he was turned out in 2019, and then apprehended by British officials acting in concert with the U.S. government.
The day he was arrested by British officials, April 11, 2019, the Justice Department unsealed its indictment of Assange charging him with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, or hacking. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum of five years in prison and stems from Assuage offering Manning help cracking a government password.
Journalists have broad privilege to publish classified or otherwise illegally obtained information, only if they do not participate in the acquisition.
Assange remains in British incarceration awaiting his January hearing where it will be decided if the United Kingdom will extradite the WikiLeaks founder to the United States.
* * *
Entire recording below:
Julian Assange Has Formally Requested a Pardon From President Donald Trump
the Gateway Pundit,
16 December, 2020
Julian Assange formally requested a pardon from President Donald Trump on Tuesday morning, the Gateway Pundit can now reveal.
People from across the political spectrum have called on President Trump to pardon the WikiLeaks founder, citing the importance of the freedom to publish.
Assange’s fiancé Stella Morris, the mother of his two young children, has previously called for a pardon — but a formal request was not filed with the White House until this week.
Assange is imprisoned in the United Kingdom pending a decision about his extradition to the United States where he faces charges under the Espionage Act for his publication of the Iraq and Afghan War Logs. If convicted he could face a maximum sentence of 175 years for the “crime” of publishing material that the US government did not want the population to know.
In 2018, President Trump’s attorneys quietly made a case in defense of WikiLeaks throughout legal filings responding to a lawsuit filed by Democrat Party donors who alleged that the campaign and former advisor Roger Stone conspired with Russians to publish the leaked Democratic National Committee emails.
Their assessment was correct.
Buried within hundreds of pages of case filings, in a motion filed in October 2018, Trump lawyer Michael A. Carvin argued that under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (47 U.S.C. § 230), “a website that provides a forum where ‘third parties can post information’ is not liable for the third party’s posted information.”
“That is so even when even when the website performs ‘editorial functions’ ‘such as deciding whether to publish,’” the filing contends. “Since WikiLeaks provided a forum for a third party (the unnamed ‘Russian actors’) to publish content developed by that third party (the hacked emails), it cannot be held liable for the publication.”
This defense holds true for the war log releases that Assange has been charged for publishing.
“In addition, the First Amendment generally denies the government power to punish truthful speech,” Carvin wrote. He added that privacy cannot justify these violations of core First Amendment norms. The filing then refers to the 1989 case of Florida Star v. B.J.F., in which it was determined that “punishing truthful publication in the name of privacy” is an “extraordinary measure.”
The formal pardon request comes on the heels of a viral claim from a Trump ally that the president would be pardoning the publisher. While he ended up retracting his statement, claiming he had faulty sources, it was clear that it was a move that people from both sides of the political spectrum support. The tweet gained over 75,000 “likes” on Twitter in about an hour, before being retracted.
National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden weighed in on the news saying that “I very much hope this is true. The case against Assange is based on a legal theory that would criminalize the work of every journalist, both at home and abroad.”
Snowden has previously lobbied for a pardon for Assange, even before one for himself.
“Mr. President, if you grant only one act of clemency during your time in office, please: free Julian Assange. You alone can save his life,” Snowden tweeted earlier this month.
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