Posted on 07/02/2020 1:18:42 PM PDT by ransomnote
A federal grand jury returned a second superseding indictment today charging Julian P. Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, with offenses that relate to Assange’s alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States.
The new indictment does not add additional counts to the prior 18-count superseding indictment returned against Assange in May 2019. It does, however, broaden the scope of the conspiracy surrounding alleged computer intrusions with which Assange was previously charged. According to the charging document, Assange and others at WikiLeaks recruited and agreed with hackers to commit computer intrusions to benefit WikiLeaks.
Since the early days of WikiLeaks, Assange has spoken at hacking conferences to tout his own history as a “famous teenage hacker in Australia” and to encourage others to hack to obtain information for WikiLeaks. In 2009, for instance, Assange told the Hacking At Random conference that WikiLeaks had obtained nonpublic documents from the Congressional Research Service by exploiting “a small vulnerability” inside the document distribution system of the United States Congress, and then asserted that “[t]his is what any one of you would find if you were actually looking.”
In 2010, Assange gained unauthorized access to a government computer system of a NATO country. In 2012, Assange communicated directly with a leader of the hacking group LulzSec (who by then was cooperating with the FBI), and provided a list of targets for LulzSec to hack. With respect to one target, Assange asked the LulzSec leader to look for (and provide to WikiLeaks) mail and documents, databases and pdfs. In another communication, Assange told the LulzSec leader that the most impactful release of hacked materials would be from the CIA, NSA, or the New York Times. WikiLeaks obtained and published emails from a data breach committed against an American intelligence consulting company by an “Anonymous” and LulzSec-affiliated hacker. According to that hacker, Assange indirectly asked him to spam that victim company again.
In addition, the broadened hacking conspiracy continues to allege that Assange conspired with Army Intelligence Analyst Chelsea Manning to crack a password hash to a classified U.S. Department of Defense computer.
An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Assange is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on each count except for conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, for which he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
John C. Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and James A. Dawson, Special Agent in Charge, Criminal Division, FBI Washington Field Office, made the announcement. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Doherty-McCormick, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kellen S. Dwyer, Thomas W. Traxler, Alexander P. Berrang, and Gordon D. Kromberg, and Trial Attorneys Adam L. Small and Nicholas O. Hunter of the Justice Department’s National Security Division are prosecuting the case.
Assange is currently detained in the United Kingdom on an extradition request from the United States. Assange’s extradition to the United States is being handled by the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs and UK authorities, including the Home Office and the Crown Prosecution Service for England and Wales.
So would Assange be considered a ham sandwich, or just grilled cheese ?
Why cant the DOJ find any IC leakers to prosecute?
I must have missed it, did they prosecute Hillary yet? /sarc
Seth Rich
Just a random name that popped into my head, has nothing to do with this I’m sure.
So where is this going?
Sounds like every article about Trump that has been published by the NY Times and the Washington Post.
At the very least, the FBI could get her for lying. She can't help herself. She can't say anything without lying.
Just started scanning the actual document and it spends a lot of ink connecting to Chelsea Manning.
Come on, we already know that “no reasonable prosecutor” would bring charges against Hillary Clinton.
After all, reasonable people are not suicidal.
Did’t Obama grant clemency to Bradley Manning, one of those leakers?
And the FBI’s star informant is convicted pedophile, fraudster, and embezzler, Sigurdur (’Siggi’) Thordarson.
https://icelandmag.is/article/former-wikileaks-volunteer-siggi-hacker-sentenced-prison-sexually-violating-teenage-boys
A sociopath with a severe anti-social personality disorder
The Reykjanes district court today sentenced Sigurður to prison for repeated and aggressive sexual harrassment and for having sexually violated nine young men. Much of the harassment took place through Facebook and email, while the violations took place in person. Siggi offered the boys money and valuables in return for sexual favours, ranging from 25 million ISK (200,000 USD/170,000 EUR) to vacations abroad and expensive cars. He also promised to hack the computer network of their schools to change their grades and attendance. When the young men refused to meet him Sigurður harassed them systematically, pressuring them to perform sexual acts with him or to meet him.
Sigurður was sentenced to eight months in prison earlier this year for having sexually violated a seventeen year old boy as well as receiving a two year suspended sentence for fraud in a separate case.
The court found that Sigurður is by all definitions a sociopath, suffering from a severe anti-social personality disorder. However, the court found that he did know the difference between right and wrong and could not be considered insane and could therefore stand trial.
p
How is Assange any different than Simon & Schuster?
*** Didt Obama grant clemency to Bradley Manning, one of those leakers? ***
Yes, Manning served 7 years of a 35 year sentence. Then the current Admin’s DOJ jailed him again to compel him to re-testify to testimony he had already given to a Grand Jury, and to screw over Assange. Manning refused, and was finally ordered released by a Judge,
Ordering Mannings release, Judge Anthony J Trenga wrote: The court finds Ms Mannings appearance before the grand jury is no longer needed, in light of which her detention no longer serves any coercive purpose.
He used attempted suicides as a means to gain release...it worked...the court caved.
Question for attorneys: Does this reworking of the charges help or hurt Roger Stone, or conversely, Hillary and John Podesta?
exactly...
Without WikiLeaks then Trump would not be president. I really believe that. The information they released woke up a lot of people.
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