Judge Rules Assange Visitors May Sue CIA For Allegedly Violating Privacy
https://thedissenter.org/judge-assange-visitors-may-sue-cia-for-spying/
Excerpt:
A federal judge ruled that four American attorneys and journalists, who visited WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange while he was in the Ecuador embassy in London, may sue the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for their role in the alleged copying of the contents of their electronic devices.
The Americans sufficiently alleged that the CIA and CIA Director Mike Pompeo—through the Spanish security company UC Global and its director David Morales—“violated their reasonable expectation of privacy” under the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
.....The United States government moved to dismiss the claims against the CIA and Pompeo. Judge John Koeltl of the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York granted several parts of the government’s motion, but he refused to dismiss a claim related to allegations that the CIA copied their electronics and violated their privacy.
.....“In this case, the misconduct alleged is a violation of the plaintiffs’ reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of their electronic devices under the Fourth Amendment. The Government concedes that the plaintiffs had a right to privacy in the contents of their electronic devices,” Koeltl stated.
.....“If the Government’s search (of their conversations and electronic devices) and seizure (of the contents of their electronic devices) were unlawful, the plaintiffs have suffered a concrete and particularized injury fairly traceable to the challenged program and redressable by a favorable ruling,” Koeltl declared.
He also contended that the Americans did not have to demonstrate that the government planned to “imminently use” the information that they collected from their electronic devices.
However, Koeltl dismissed three additional claims against the CIA—one involving surveillance of the American attorneys and journalists’ conversations with Assange, one involving photographs of passports and devices that were allegedly taken, and one claim specifically against Pompeo in his individual capacity as a former official.
Koeltl agreed with the government that the allegedly targeted Americans “knew Assange was surveilled even before the CIA’s alleged involvement.” He considered it relevant that they did not indicate they they would not have met with Assange if they had known their conversations were under surveillance.
Since security personnel could have easily overheard their conversations, there was no “reasonable expectation of privacy.”
He also sided with the government when it came to their argument that the Americans voluntarily handed their devices over to Embassy security so they assumed the risk that their passports and devices might be photographed by the government.
.....The U.S. government on behalf of the CIA will likely appeal the decision. Nevertheless, it is a remarkable development because there is a distinct possibility that there may be a civil trial, where CIA spying on Americans is challenged. ......