According to WikiLeaks, U.S. federal prosecutors are making a hard push for witnesses in domestically and aboard to have them testify against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. This offers us further details that the U.S. Justice Department is building a criminal case against Assange because he leaked Democratic emails that were hacked by Russians in the 2016 election.
Per Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, WikiLeaks has urged the Justice Department to unseal the charges brought upon Assange. This is because these charges seemed to have been filed secretly in the Eastern District of Virginia. Because of mistake in the Justice Department court filing in last November, it revealed the existence of such charges against Assange.
“The submission reveals for the first time that U.S. federal prosecutors have in the last few months formally approached people in the United States, Germany and Iceland and pressed them to testify against Mr. Assange in return for immunity from prosecution,” WikiLeaks said in a statement. “Those approached are associated with WikiLeaks’ joint publications with other media about U.S. diplomacy, Guantanamo Bay and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Australian-born Julian Assange has been hiding at the Ecuadorean embassy in London since 2012 so he can avoid extradition to Sweden because of rape investigation. Swedish prosecutors have since dropped their request for extradition, but through U.S. court filing, it revealed that U.S. prosecutors have already pressed sealed charges against Mr. Assange.
While at the Ecuadorean embassy, Assange’s actions have drawn some questions. If he were to be kicked out of the embassy, he could face contempt of court charges in the U.K. For fleeing justice, which would allow U.S. prosecutors to review extradition proceedings.
