I'm curious if there are any Australia USA deals here too, in terms of restrictions he may have upon arriving to AU
Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
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Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#52Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#53[flagged]
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Priorities change. He's not really a threat anymore. They've thoroughly scared people who might copy him.
This is how conspiracy theories are so resilient. Everything is evidence of the conspiracy. Someone gets arrested? The conspirators had it out for them. They later get freed? The conspirators simply changed their mind! It's not that you're wrong, it's just that your argument is entirely unfalsifiable.
Part of that statement is public knowledge. Wikileaks was a trusted entity who you could release documents to that would publish and keep you private. That reputation and threat has disappeared making wikileaks a tainted brand. Assange is also tainted and has lost power. The deal he signed also restricts him.
I'm not even sure it's a conspiracy anymore as each legal procedure by nation states played out in public.
The conspiracy in principle is always a layer deeper than public view.
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#55[flagged]
> In May, two judges on the High Court said he could have a full hearing on whether he would be discriminated against in the U.S. because he is a foreign national. A hearing on the issue of Assange's free speech rights had been scheduled for July 9-10. At the risk of sounding a tad conspiratorial, it's possible the U.S. agreed to this deal specifically to avoid the upcoming trial. As I understand it, there remains an…
It makes more sense that they agreed to the deal because Assange has spent 5 years in prison, which approaches or exceeds the likely sentence he would have received (even after applying the "TOP SECRET" sentence modifier) for a conspiracy liability charge. At some point there's no longer any purpose in pursuing the case.
Later
Moreso: assume Assange spends another year or two in UK prison, and then is extradited; the trial is complicated (for the same reason the Florida documents trial is complicated: because it involves evidence that has to be cleared for and during trial) and could easily run over a year, longer if Assange wanted to --- you're now running up to the maximum possible guideline sentence even if the prosecution could establish that he led the conspiracy, rather than just participating.
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#56[flagged]
I guess that is one way of attempting to rehabilitate arguments, often made here on HN, that Assange would never ever under any circumstances be extradited and had no reason to fear extradition. Reframing that as being not merely about being extradited but being disappeared helps shift emphasis away from the other 90% of the conversation surrounding extradition fears, that proved in the end to be true. Edit: The fear…
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Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#57They think their harrasment of him is going to deter future whistleblowers but the only thing they've done is encourage future leakers to "go all the way, leak everything no matter how damaging, and then kill yourself to be a martyr. They should have just pardoned him and let him go.
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#58[flagged]
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#59still no word of what happened to his beloved pet guinea pigs during his time at the Ecuadorian embassy.
Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free
#60How do plea deals work for precedent? As despite the constant claim that he was only being charged for assisting in hacking US computers, the plea deal is over violations of the Espionage Act specifically about receiving and publishing classified documents. Or basically his acts as a journalist. Can this be used to indict other journalists who receive and publish classified information? As if so, this feels like a hu…
They don't. Generally: lower court decisions don't create binding precedent. Further: Assange wasn't simply charged with "receiving and publishing classified information"; he was charged with being instrumental in that information being exfiltrated in the first place.
"Generally" is one of those somewhat troubling terms on a case that has severe First Amendment implications, but that's good to know.
>Further: Assange wasn't simply charged with "receiving and publishing classified information"; he was charged with being instrumental in that information being exfiltrated in the first place.
Those charges were (presumably) dropped as part of the plea, and his plea did not mention them. The plea is only about receiving and publishing.