A bipartisan group of congresscritters have written to two cabinet
ministers calling for dropping charged against Julian Assange.
Here's the text of the letter, so you can read it without running
nonfree Javascript code.
Dear President Biden,
As Members of Congress deeply committed to the principles of free speech
and freedom of the press, we write to strongly encourage your
Administration to withdraw the U.S. extradition request currently pending
against Australian publisher Julian Assange and halt all prosecutorial
proceedings against him as soon as possible.
Mr. Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, faces multiple charges under the
Espionage Act due to his role in publishing classified documents about the
U.S. State Department, Guantanamo Bay, and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He
has been detained on remand in London since 2019 and is pending extradition
to the U.S., having lost his appeal of the extradition order in the courts
of the United Kingdom.
Deep concerns about this case have been repeatedly expressed by
international media outlets, human rights and press freedom advocates, and
Members of Congress, among others. To cite only a few of the commentaries,
in November 2022, *The New York Times*, *The Guardian*, *Le Monde*, *DER
SPEIGEL* and *El País* came together to express their grave concerns
about the continued prosecution of Julian Assange for obtaining and
publishing classified materials, arguing that “publishing is not a crime.”
In December 2022, a coalition of press freedom, civil liberties, and
international human rights organizations wrote to Attorney General Merrick
Garland urging
him to correct course and abandon the relentless pursuit of Mr. Assange in
order to protect the ability of journalists to report freely on the United
States without fear of retribution. U.S. elected officials have previously
called on the Administration to drop the charges against Mr. Assange,
including in April of this year when Members of the House argued
that "[e]very day that the prosecution of Julian Assange continues is another
day that our own government needlessly undermines our own moral authority
abroad and rolls back the freedom of the press under the First Amendment at
home.”
We believe the Department of Justice acted correctly in 2013, during your
vice-presidency, when it declined to pursue charges against
Mr. Assange for publishing the classified documents because it recognized
that the prosecution would set a dangerous precedent. We note that the 1917
Espionage Act was ostensibly intended to punish and imprison government
employees and contractors for providing or selling state secrets to enemy
governments, not to punish journalists and whistleblowers for attempting to
inform the public about serious issues that some U.S. government officials
might prefer to keep secret. We are aware that the Assange case has been cited
by officials of the People’s Republic of China
to claim that the U.S. is “hypocritical” when it comes to its purported
support for media freedom. We are also well aware that should the U.S.
extradition and prosecution go forward, there is a significant risk that
our bilateral relationship with Australia will be badly damaged.
It is the duty of journalists to seek out sources, including documentary
evidence, in order to report to the public on the activities of government.
The United States must not pursue an unnecessary prosecution that risks
criminalizing common journalistic practices and thus chilling the work of
the free press. We urge you to ensure that this case be brought to a close
in as timely a manner as possible.
Sincerely,
James P. McGovern Thomas Massie
Member of Congress Member of Congress