Pardon Julian Assange?

Silverfiddle Rant!

In an age of interminable titty-twisters, here's one more: Clown car conservatives are joining the Pardon Julian Assange circus.

Should President Trump pardon Julian Assage?  Here are some facts.

DoJ initially charged Assange with conspiring with Private Chelsea Manning to steal classified government documents and publish them to the world. In 2019, the US government issued an 18-count superseding indictment.

People and organizations big and small worldwide have been protesting US prosecution of Assange since the initial indictment, usually citing freedom of the press.  The US counter-argues that Assange is not a reporter and that he was in on the conspiracy to steal government secrets.

Assange is not a US citizen and does not have a security clearance, and anyway, what makes his actions any different from that of the Washington Post, NY Times, or any other news outlet that gleefully publishes purloined government secrets to advance the outlet's and the leaker's political agenda?

The crime lies with Private Chelsea Manning, a cleared US citizen who violated federal law and betrayed her nation by turning over classified information to people not authorized to receive it. Instead of doing the right thing and executing Chelsea Manning on the battlefield in Iraq, the government treated her leniently, giving her 35 years, but President Barack Obama commuted her sentence on his way out the door. 

The initial and most unambiguous charge against Assange is that he received a password hash value stolen by Manning (I laughed when the DoJ indictment called the Linux operating system used by Manning "special software.")  Assange used publicly available tools in an unsuccessful attempt to derive the password from the hash, which would have allowed Manning to continue her theft under the cloak of a different user account. 

Manning did all the work and paid for it with a grand total of four years in federal prison before Obama let her go.  

How many years should Assange get for conspiracy and attempt to crack a password?

MORE INFO:

DoJ Initial Indictment

DoJ Press release: 18-Count Superceding Indictment

Glenn Greenwald - The Kafkaesque Imprisonment of Julian Assange Exposes U.S. Myths About Freedom and Tyranny

Kyle Smith - The Real Reason Assange should not be Pardoned

Julian Assange: Hero or Criminal?

Silverfiddle Rant!

Barack Obama got in one more jab at the nation on his way out the door when he granted clemency to traitor Chelsea Manning, the Army Private who gave classified information to Julian Assange and Wikileaks.

Manning is back in jail after refusing to cooperate with a grand jury looking into Julian Assange:

Manning, convicted in 2013 of leaking classified U.S. government documents to WikiLeaks, was jailed in early March as a recalcitrant witness after refusing to answer the grand jury’s questions. (Gizmodo)

The US charges against Assange have nothing to do with "journalism:"

Assange allegedly aided her in attempting to crack a password that would provide access to Defense Department network used to store classified documents and communications. While Manning already had access to the network, known as SIPRNet, the password would have enabled her to download additional material under a username that was not her own. (Gizmodo)

Assange was just the conduit.  That in itself was not a crime.  If it were, our prisons would be filled with writers from the New York Times, Washington Post and many other media outlets who gleefully publish classified information.  This new information--that Assange attempted to crack a US military network--now puts him in the criminal category.  It looks like Manning may again be in legal jeopardy if new information is discovered that contradicts her earlier sworn testimony.

The most interesting aspect of this is the confusing scrum of different ideological camps attacking or defending Assange.  The battle lines do not break down neatly, with all left/Democrats on one side and all right/Republicans on the other. I will spare you explanations of this lunacy.

Julian Assange is no hero. He published stolen classified information that chilled secret nation-to-nation diplomatic efforts, many of which were humanitarian. His dispatches also damaged the United States. I wish we could prosecute him for this, but it is probably not possible.  I do support prosecuting him for his role in Manning's traitorous espionage.  I hope they both end up in federal prison.

What say you?

See Also: Why Isn’t Assange Charged with ‘Collusion with Russia’?