www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/julian-assange-reached-plea-deal-us-allowing-go-free-rcna158695
Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
Oh, he absolutely deserved to be in prison. Don't forget that he didn't just receive and publish classified information, he actively helped Manning gain access to computer systems they were not authorized to access. This included cracking passwords to use accounts with more access. This is way, way over the line. Journalists publishing information is one thing, but helping someone commit espionage to get it is another thing entirely.
Edit: yeesh, the downvotes on this comment. Guys, you can't materially help someone commit espionage. That's very illegal. I really didn't think that would be a controversial statement.
I think that's the huge difference with Snowden. The dude got the info out, very important info and gave it to journalists for them to follow standards and practices. Then, we all found out about all the spying and shit. Assange didn't do that and released info left and right without caring about the fallout.
He also weaponized the leaks to settle scores and personal vendettas. Literally 30 minutes after the Access Hollywood tape was first published, Wikileaks released the Podesta emails. Assange absolutely hates the Clintons.
I think Wikileaks has been a net good, and I don't mind whistleblowers shining a light on clandestine efforts by the government, but I don't think Assange's main motivation is transparency and government accountability.
Exactly this. He helped Trump. Snowden just took all the files out and let journalists figure out what to publish and not what to publish... and The Guardian, no less.
Julian Assange: "We believe it would be much better for GOP to win."
It was Julian's idea to release selected innocuous tax return papers in a fake leak to appear objective. The Donald Trump campaign took that advice. We may remember when Rachel Maddow of all people presented the leaks. She received much scorn for that too.
Also, Julian was essentially a foreign Republican operative. Julian suggested directly to the Donald Trump campaign before the 2016 election not to "conceed" the election.
I would argue he didn't release info "left and right" - he very specifically released politically targeted info that was stolen by foreign agents with a vested interest in an upcoming election.
That's when I lost any respect for him
But he curated the info to push his agenda. He's not a journalist. He's a propagandist.
Assange? Totally. That’s what I said
He was not at all careless, but in fact quite selective. It was not some white hat 'Hack the Planet' type stuff, it was done in service of partisan hackery.
also i kind of get the impression that there may have been somewhat of a political motive behind the timing of some of wikileaks leaks*, and so the fact that trump is the one to crack down extra hard on that shit should be a HUGE RED FLASHING LED NEON SIGN saying "this dude supports the establishments corruption above all else"
anyway heres a recent comment i made about Snowden:
i suggest reading his wikipedia page, specifically the part detailing the leaks. wikipedia might not always be 100% unbiased or 100% accurate, but considering its his page... its probably one that has a lot of extra attention paid to it, so its most likely pretty trustworthy and it has nearly 500 sources cited, so probably decent.
also
more from The Guardian in their "The Snowden Files" series
*obviously i could be wrong and im not actually accusing him of that. i think he, just like Snowden, believed he was doing a public service and exposing the corruption for all the world to see. i guess idk what Assange's previous employment was, but Snowden literally worked in the intelligence apparatus so he kinda knew how to handle things - or how they would hopefully understand his reasoning. Assange on the other hand was always an outsider, a hacker, a journalist. two approaches from opposite ends of the spectrum towards the same massive problems.
"Greenwald found the measures that the source asked him to take to secure their communications, such as encrypting email, too annoying to employ."
Lol glen greenwald is such a hack loser. I remember respecting him a lot early in his career. What a disappointment he turned out to be.
Or that time Wikileaks doxxed all the female voters in Türkiye
Aren’t there also rape charges against him?
They were dropped, fwiw
I mean they were only dropped cause one of the accusers got sick of the scrutiny and pulled out, and the other passed the statue of limitations.
Not saying he was guilty you understand, but its not like they just gave up on them when he didn't play ball.
Honestly, this is the least of it. A lot of good people are dead because of him.
Ill bite and ask; who and why?
His leaks included a lot of info on people who collaborated with the US in the Middle East. No prizes for guessing what people like the Taliban did when they found out the identity of Afghans who secretly plotted against them.
A lot of good people are dead because of him.
That's what they said about the Pentagon Papers, too.
The state always claims security necessity. Everyone knows we'd all be dead if we hadn't spent the last 23 years walking through airports in our socks.
Yeah that's the whole Bush Jr line of thinking that allows our government to operate in secrecy. Oh this stuff is so grave to national security that you should be afraid of this information being public.
When 9 times out of 10 the classified info is either to cover their own incompetence or allow them to do things that the public would never agree to if we knew about it.
We are supposed to be an informed electorate how the fuck do we do that if we have a government that's addicted to secrecy.
Never forget that Bush Jr even went so far as to go back and start reclasifying things that had already been declassified for the public.
You realise the Taliban literally hunted down informants that were named in the leaks, right? This isn't a "claim", it was a serious consequence of WikiLeaks choosing to release these files without bothering to redact the identities.
There's a pretty big difference between " some vague national security thing will happen if this comes out" and " they leaked this Afgan translator's name and the Taliban murdered him"
This. He deserved prison.
... it for nothing else, for the alleged rape. But he got away with that - just hand to spend a decade in prison or self-imposed office arrest for it.
Usually we only send people to prison for proven rape, not just alleged rape. Anybody can allege rape.
Perhaps that is a terminology thing. But usually we lock people up before trial when they are serious offenders and flight risks. To stop them running away and avoiding a trial.
Hard to prove it if the suspect flees your jurisdiction for 9 years and just waits out the judicial system
You think he should be in prison for an alleged rape?
It’s certainly controversial on Reddit for sure. I don’t really understand why the user base here generally acts like espionage and obtaining and publishing classified info/sensitive documents are okay. That would get you put in jail just about anywhere, and even straight up executed some places.
"...actively helped Manning..."
The evidence for this is very thin, and Assange has never been afforded an actual trial on these counts.
Additional, Assange was not in the US during this time. The whole US law is world law is bullshit.
The evidence for this is very thin, and Assange has never been afforded an actual trial on these counts.
Yes, because he refused to stand trial. That was the whole point of the extradition proceedings.
Additional, Assange was not in the US during this time. The whole US law is world law is bullshit.
This is every country. If I break into an Australian bank account and steal money, I have broken Australian law. I could face extradition. You do not need to be in the country to break that country's law.
Yes, the evidence is thin, regardless if there is a trial or not. Fighting extradition is removing the possibility of a trial. Remember innocent until proven guilty.
Also the bank example is only applicable if they were to digital rob the bank while not in Australia. Certainly the Australians view it as a crime but the country of resident might not.
Additional, Assange was not in the US during this time. The whole US law is world law is bullshit.
The crime was committed in the US and he aided that crime. This is like if someone organized a bank heist but didn't personally go there. Doesn't matter that he wasn't a gun man or get-away driver, he's still holding a metaphorical duffle bag of unmarked bills he arranged to be stolen.
Can a person on foreign soil hack into a computer system in the US and steal gigabytes of data but there's somehow no crime because they're on foreign soil?
Boot is dripping with foamy saliva.
Is that the only thing you too online sheep repeat?
That's the accusation. But those 'helping' details arrived well after the US started going after him.
No. We've had their communications from the start, we know how and when Assange helped Manning. It was part of Manning's court martial and Assange's indictment. We have chat logs that correspond with the actions we know Manning took.
Also Trump had discussions of straight up mercing JA.
Went after him after he selectively helped the Republicans with his "leaks" lol I think he got what he deserved for getting in bed with conmen.
Exactly. He was not innocent. He had an agenda and helped himself.
They never expect the face-eating leopards are gonna eat their face.
Went after him after he selectively helped the Republicans with his "leaks"
His first leaks were anti-Republican, during the Iraq War. Funny how the same people who called him a "traitor" (he's not even American, so how can he betray a country he owes no allegiance to?) for the later leaks were cool with the earlier ones.
the Obama-era policy of viewing Assange as a journalist
The FBI investigation of him began during the Obama presidency. In fact, Joe Biden referred to him as a terrorist.
Not excusing the indictment under Trump, but Obama started the ball rolling on Assange's persecution.
The Obama admin investigated and decided not to prosecute. I'm not sure how that's "getting the ball rolling."
The Obama DOJ – despite launching notoriously aggressive attacks on press freedoms – recognized this critical principle when it came to WikiLeaks. It spent years exploring whether it could criminally charge Assange and WikiLeaks for publishing classified information. It ultimately decided it would not do so, and could not do so, consistent with the press freedom guarantee of the First Amendment. After all, the Obama DOJ concluded, such a prosecution would pose a severe threat to press freedom because there would be no way to prosecute Assange for publishing classified documents without also prosecuting the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian and others for doing exactly the same thing.
When Julian Assange became a useful idiot for Russia he had to be stopped.
Except Obama prosecuted more leakers and journalists than all previous administrations combined, tapped reporters phones, had the FBI investigate reporters.
https://apnews.com/article/9d9a76067d5b47e5a290dc9832369c92
https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/the-leaks-scandals-questions-for-obama
Except this thread is about Julian Assange, who the Obama admin concluded could not be prosecuted on journalistic grounds, but thank you for the sidebar.
Whole lot of bots and misinformation up in here.
Hard to tell the bots from the bootlickers, they are all so alike.
It is just me or does he look like a Targaryen?
Dude served 14 years over this, 5 if you consider being locked in a foreign embassy better than prison.
Assange could have wrapped up his sentence 9 years ago.
This is mostly false, the majority of that time was spent trying to avoid sexual assault charges from Sweden.
this asshole knowingly tried to take the heat off the russian GRU by telling a bunch of soft-brained conspiracy morons that Seth Rich was killed by Clinton or some dumb shit and they took the bait and harassed his family endlessly.
He put that family through hell for a lie, fuck him.
Anyone who tries to say he doesn't work for the russians is blind
He was a Russian agent, a Republican enabler, a subverter of American democracy, and an animal abuser. Now he's going to cash in on his celebrity and exploit his credulous followers. If he weren't a foreigner, he'd probably be a leading candidate for the GOP Presidential nomination in 2028.
Wikileaks published hundreds of thousands of documents, worldwide. They exposed real war crimes and government corruption. He may not be a cool dude, but framing him as a Russian agent is laughable, silly propaganda to discredit all the leaks.
Fools are more mad at the leaks than the crimes they exposed.
Don't forget his sexual assault allegations.
GOP has no issue with candidates with sexual assault allegations.
Would probably help
Don't forget shit smearer
He was a Russian agent
any proof?
I mean he ran a show on Russian TV and then committed espionage. What do you need us to draw a picture or something
Wikileaks also got dirt on the GOP and Russia, then choose to specifically never to release that info. If Assange was a straight shooter, I'd view him better, but he got himself involved in global politics and went from being a whistleblower to political agent. So I can't trust him anymore, and used to. He's just as bad as the rest of them, or maybe even worse, in the sense that he used his previous whistleblower cred to push his own political agenda.
That's a terrible argument. Zelensky was also on Russian TV so is he a Russian agent too?
That isn’t proof.
a Republican enabler
His first leaks were anti-Republican, as they documented shit that went down under Bush.
He was a Russian agent
Just like Daniel Ellsburg was a commie agent, according to the government (ie, Nixon).
a Republican enabler
My guess is he endorsed Trump in the hopes of getting a pardon from him, and didn't expect him to suddenly push for extradition.
Animal abuser?
I see a podcast in the making.
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I wonder what the deal includes…
Only one thing - a lifelong promise to never release the Epstein list.
Why on earth would he have that?
I get that he may have not done everything in the best way, let’s not forget we wouldn’t understand the full capabilities of the US illegal surveillance state if it weren’t for him.
I know nuance is not a thing many Redditors are good at comprehending in subs like this, but please try to look at the bigger picture.
Are you confusing him with Snowden?
Pedophiles belong behind bars.
Julian Assange is a narcissist, and everything he did was for his own ego. He gave comfort to some truly awful people and helped usher in the toxic ocean of political shit that the world is currently swimming in. Fuck him.
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He is an info dumper not a whistleblower.
May he forever shut the fuck up. POS should go stand trial in sweden for rape charges.
Russian patsy helped elect trump.
Dumb take. You know you don’t have to think what msnbc tells you. You can think for yourself.
Please. It's the factual take. Im canadian and dont even watch msnbc. Who do you listen to ? Russia today ? Joe rogan ? Anonymous internet sources ? Is that how you think for yourself ?
Why the Northern Mariana Islands?
Because Assange was resistant to setting foot in the continental U.S. for his guilty plea, and the Northern Marianas are much closer to his home country of Australia than most other U.S. territory.
So, after all the pleading innocence and hiding and appealing, he announces that he was actually guilty all along. I am so shocked /s
that's wonderful news . he has suffered enough for telling the truth .
He knowingly colluded with another spy to obtain and then publish via Wikileaks classified documents. The laws were and are very clear on this - it is a crime and will (and should) be punished. If he was really a journalist (which he wasn't), it doesn't change the laws. Laws apply to journalists (while we don't actually have REAL journalists in the USA) just like anybody else.
It's a bit ironic isn't it? All this talk about classified documents . . . so many claiming that they shouldn't be protected by laws . . . I guess in America it seems some only want laws to apply based on who the culprit is? Assange belongs in prison. And if we are suggesting that those in possession of classified documents when they don't have a legal right to, then apparently our current President, former President(s) and former senior government politicians/employees (including Sec of States) all belong in prison.
Good. I’m glad he is out. He was thrown in jail for exposing crimes and never deserved to step foot in prison
He did flee bail, so he at least deserved the initial time he spent in the British prison.
No matter the motive or what kind of person he is, he told the truth and that is what got him in trouble.
Was he telling the truth when he pushed pizzagate conspiracy bullshit and falsely accusing Seth rich? What an ignorant comment.
He selectively told selective truths
Same day that LockBit announces they hacked the FederalReserve??? Wow
The amount of people who has bought the propaganda against this man is astonishing. All I see is people commenting on whether he is guilty or not, but not a single comment on the Wikileaks. Not a single comment on everything he exposed and all the crimes committed by people inside the U.S government. People who will never go to prison for the things they did.
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I’m calling it now….i expect him to succumb to a mysterious car accident.
If he goes away, then I hope he lives out a quiet life.
But if he gets back into supporting espionage, hacking, or this bullshit truth narrative... then I'm fine for him to get into a car accident by falling out a window.
In between all this, he is a sexual molester
So is he like, free free now?
I know he was holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy for like 10 years or something, but they got sick of his shit. He wouldn't leave, out of fear that he would be arrested immediately upon leaving the building.
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Not that it will matter to the pro-conspiracy right, but your regular reminder that it was the Trump administration who changed the Obama-era policy of viewing Assange as a journalist to go after him hard.
Didn't deserve to be in prison, although I personally think he's a scumbag (starting with what he put Seth Rich's family through)