UPDATE: Prosecutors fail to show up at #Assange hearing, more than 150 lawyers call for #JulianAssange to be freed

WATCH: https://t.co/a7J84eXuOX https://t.co/AEdWphbMOh

I just finished reading the chapter on #WikiLeaks (59 pages) contained in the #SenateIntelligenceCommittee's Report on "Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 US Election"

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1295805396788154368.html

A Secret Australia: Revealed by the WikiLeaks Exposés (Monash University Publishing)
https://publishing.monash.edu/books/asa-9781925835939.html

Edward Snowden raked in over $1.2 million in speaking fees, agent says
https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2020/08/17/edward-snowden-speaking-fees-nsa-396947

Lawyers call for Julian Assange release | The Canberra Times | Canberra, ACT
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6881219/lawyers-call-for-julian-assange-release/

Canberra Times: ...In a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and Home Secretary Priti Patel, 169 individuals and legal organisations called for the government to intervene.

If extradited, campaigners said the 49-year-old will face a "show trial" in the US.

They added he has been subject to surveillance which violates his right to a fair trial.

"We call on you to act in accordance with national and international law, human rights and the rule of law by bringing an end to the ongoing extradition proceedings and granting Mr Assange his long overdue freedom," the letter signed Lawyers for Assange, reads.

The group said the political nature of his alleged offences prohibits his extradition under the US-UK extradition treaty and that UK judges in his case have been subject to conflicts of interest.
...
In the letter, Lawyers for Assange said this was an "irregular and disproportionate sentence" and stressed the need for his release given the Covid-19 pandemic and his health.

Campaigners also said Assange's extradition would endanger the freedom of the press.

The letter said: "The extradition to the US of a publisher and journalist, for engaging in journalistic activities while in Europe, would set a very dangerous precedent."

Julian Assange Court Case Delayed Again in Bizarre Circumstances
https://www.mintpressnews.com/...nge-extradition-case-delayed-again-in-bizarre-circumstances/270424/

"Proceedings were held up this morning so Assange could converse for the first time in five months with his legal team. The prosecution team failed to turn up at the hearing because they were told events started at 3:30 p.m. Only five members of the press were allowed to enter the courtroom to monitor proceedings. Other journalists, observers, and NGOs attempting to listen via telephone could not, as they were given the number to another courtroom. One journalist who did make it inside claimed that the judge, Vanessa Baraitser, was, 'clearly reading from a pre-written ruling.'

Assange sat in a conference room used by the entire prison, without a mask, and was seen coughing a number of times. At one point, proceedings in the courtroom were interrupted by screaming coming from another booth in Belmarsh prison, loud enough to cause a delay. Present at the hearing, Assange’s mother, Christine, warned that he would not survive extradition to the United States.

Perhaps most bizarre, however, is that the United States Department of Justice dropped its original indictment in June, just two days after Assange’s defense team submitted their full and final evidence for the extradition hearing. Today was the first time Assange saw the charges against him..."

ASSANGE EXTRADITION: Confusion Over Superseding Indictment May Delay Hearing – Consortiumnews
https://consortiumnews.com/...e-extradition-confusion-over-superseding-indictment-may-delay-hearing/

"The defense accused the prosecution of an 'abuse of justice' and requested that the hearing resume in September as planned without inclusion of the new indictment, Passarelli said.
...
Stella Moris, an Assange attorney and his partner, tweeted that the new U.S. extradition request was filed after the defense had submitted its legal argument on the initial request.
...
According to Passarelli, Baraitser then said it wasn’t even clear if Assange would still be under arrest if the U.S. wanted to start the extradition process over again by introducing new evidence past the June 2019 deadline.
...
The U.S., Shipton said, is 'making every effort to ensure that the [substantive] hearing is not the 7th of September, but in fact after the American election.' ”

Shadowproof Update: Abuse Of Process In Julian Assange's Case
https://youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=W7Bt2gvaweM


Listen to Shadowproof editor Kevin Gosztola's brilliant overview of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's case management hearing held August 14, 2020, what it means, and the overall chaos resulting. He covers everything you need to know.

A superseding indictment was issued in June by US DoJ that didn't expand charges but expanded the timeline to include 4 additional years up through 2015 and changed the scope of the case against Julian Assange to shape a narrative that Assange was a hacker rather than a publisher/journalist.

There are major obstacles to reporting: This is a US case that would impact on freedom of speech and publishing, but we have to depend on UK journalists to report on it.
This is because 1) the streaming of the hearings always has technical issues as it did yesterday, and 2) In person reporting is prohibitive to foreign journalists. US journalists would have to quarantine for 2 weeks in UK before they could attend court.
Excerpt from video: "Assange is currently in Belmarsh under the second superseding indictment, which is the second indictment. This is the one expanded charges from a simple conspiracy to commit computer crime charge, the one that made him out to be a hacker. They started with that before they brought the charges under the espionage act. And of course that's the one that has received so much attention - the espionage act charges got the attention of all of these press freedom groups.

So you have that indictment and it no longer exists anymore. It's null and void because the U.S. Justice Department
issued a superseding indictment in June and so technically one could argue that the entire clock and all the processes and everything that's involved in extradition restarts and that's how all should move forward...."

Wikileaks,the Espionage Act, and the Constitution | C-SPAN.org
https://www.c-span.org/video/?297115-1/wikileaksthe-espionage-act-constitution

The issue of the constitutionality of charging Assange with espionage was already debated Dec 16, 2010 before US Congress. Listen at 02:58:29 Thomas S. Blanton, Director, National Security Archive on the "slippery slope" of charging foreigners for publishing US secrets.:

"And there's the larger question you're going to, and I think this is where the slippery slope that Mr. Schoenfeld was talking about; he thought the act should apply to foreigners. Well, I have to say, on our website, the National Security Archive, we published the transcripts of Mao Zedong's meetings with Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. That's top-secret information in China. That would certainly be subject to their espionage act. So they get a right to come prosecute me, on that basis?"

Message from WikiLeaks to Julian Assange supporters at Leipzig #WeAreMillions exhibit
https://youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=PM5WAkA3QNc

Assange Update: Lawyers Speculate the US will Drop all Charges & Re-arrest Julian Assange
https://youtube.com/watch?v=UM9dir1bSxU

Judge Overseeing Assange Extradition Has Approved 96 Percent Of Extradition Cases She's Reviewed
https://youtube.com/watch?v=yl1yrAP_NJE

Vivienne Westwood Dresses Like a Canary for Julian Assange

The British fashion designer came out of lockdown to perch inside a giant bird cage, suspended 10 feet in the air, outside the Old Bailey criminal court in London.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/style/vivienne-westwood-julian-assange.html

Petition update · Taking it to The Hague: Torture is a Crime Against Humanity, Go Fund John Shipton, Making the TOP 3 · Change.org
https://www.change.org/p/free-julian-assange-before-it-s-too-late-stop-usa-extradition/u/27304113

Phillip Adams the originator of the massive petition
"Free Julian Assange, before it's too late. Sign to STOP the USA Extradition" is ramping up matters:

I am now preparing to take the matter as Petitioner and on behalf of over 484,000 signatories to the International Criminal Court / The Hague for investigation. Psychological Torture is a "Crime Against Humanity" as specified by the UN initiated 1997 Rome Convention of the International Criminal Court (at The Hague). Julian Assange has been determined as being psychologically tortured by the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on Torture. Britain and Australian politicians are legally bound to appear if subpoenaed as both British and Australian Parliaments have Ratified the UN "1997 Rome Convention" to come under international jurisdiction of the ICC where applicable.


https://www.facebook.com/112794885456369/posts/3294058377329988/

Next week, the guy who confined Chelsea Manning to a tiny prison cell 23 hours a day may end up becoming a Democratic nominee for Congress in 2020. https://t.co/UeUdigBIl5