pdf download assange indictment Uncle Sam charges Julian Assange with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. As Brit judge finds him guilty of breaching his bail conditions. One-time Aussie cupboard-dweller Julian Assange has been charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion by the US government. Shortly after his arrest in London today – which followed the Ecuadorian embassy handing him over to British police – a US indictment dated March 2018 was unsealed. It charges Assange for his part in a computer-hacking conspiracy from 2010, when hundreds of thousands of secret US cables, war reports and briefs were released after being leaked by US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. The US Department of Justice alleged that Assange had conspired with Manning – who had top secret security clearance – to break into Pentagon computers and snag the document cache. The indictment (PDF) was made in the Eastern District of Virginia. It alleges that Manning and Assange had multiple conversations about getting the files, with Assange helping her hack a password stored on Department of Defense computers, in a "password-cracking agreement", and discussed measures to conceal Manning as the source. The indictment said that Manning downloaded four nearly complete databases, and the vast majority of the documents contained were then released on Assange's WikiLeaks website. These contained, according to the indictment, about 90,000 Afghanistan war-related significant activity reports, 400,000 Iraq war-related significant activity reports, 800 Guantanamo Bay detainee assessment briefs and 250,000 US Department of State cables. The government said Manning told Assange she was "throwing everything" at getting a set of documents, but that was "all I really have got left". To which Assange allegedly replied: "Curious eyes never run dry in my experience." Manning was then said to have used a Department of Defense computer to download the State department cables. According to the indictment, Assange faces a maximum of five years in prison if convicted of the charge. Assange was arrested in London this morning for a breach of his UK bail conditions, and then later further arrested on behalf of the US after the Met received an extradition request. He is currently in court in Westminster, central London, where District Judge Michael Snow has reportedly found him guilty of failing to surrender on 29 June 2012, and has sent him to the Crown Court for sentencing. District Judge Michael Snow finds Julian Assange guilty of failing to surrender — Daniel Sandford (@BBCDanielS) April 11, 2019. WikiLeaks Founder Charged in Superseding Indictment. A federal grand jury returned a second superseding indictment today charging Julian P. Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, with offenses that relate to Assange’s alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States. The new indictment does not add additional counts to the prior 18-count superseding indictment returned against Assange in May 2019. It does, however, broaden the scope of the conspiracy surrounding alleged computer intrusions with which Assange was previously charged. According to the charging document, Assange and others at WikiLeaks recruited and agreed with hackers to commit computer intrusions to benefit WikiLeaks. Since the early days of WikiLeaks, Assange has spoken at hacking conferences to tout his own history as a “famous teenage hacker in Australia” and to encourage others to hack to obtain information for WikiLeaks. In 2009, for instance, Assange told the Hacking At Random conference that WikiLeaks had obtained nonpublic documents from the Congressional Research Service by exploiting “a small vulnerability” inside the document distribution system of the United States Congress, and then asserted that “[t]his is what any one of you would find if you were actually looking.” In 2010, Assange gained unauthorized access to a government computer system of a NATO country. In 2012, Assange communicated directly with a leader of the hacking group LulzSec (who by then was cooperating with the FBI), and provided a list of targets for LulzSec to hack. With respect to one target, Assange asked the LulzSec leader to look for (and provide to WikiLeaks) mail and documents, databases and pdfs. In another communication, Assange told the LulzSec leader that the most impactful release of hacked materials would be from the CIA, NSA, or the New York Times . WikiLeaks obtained and published emails from a data breach committed against an American intelligence consulting company by an “Anonymous” and LulzSec-affiliated hacker. According to that hacker, Assange indirectly asked him to spam that victim company again. In addition, the broadened hacking conspiracy continues to allege that Assange conspired with Army Intelligence Analyst Chelsea Manning to crack a password hash to a classified U.S. Department of Defense computer. An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Assange is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on each count except for conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, for which he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. John C. Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and James A. Dawson, Special Agent in Charge, Criminal Division, FBI Washington Field Office, made the announcement. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Doherty-McCormick, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kellen S. Dwyer, Thomas W. Traxler, Alexander P. Berrang, and Gordon D. Kromberg, and Trial Attorneys Adam L. Small and Nicholas O. Hunter of the Justice Department’s National Security Division are prosecuting the case. Assange is currently detained in the United Kingdom on an extradition request from the United States. Assange’s extradition to the United States is being handled by the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs and UK authorities, including the Home Office and the Crown Prosecution Service for England and Wales. Wikileaks: DOJ Witness In Assange Indictment ‘Sociopath, Conman, Child Abuser’ Yesterday, the US Department of Justice published a summary (.pdf) of a federal grand jury’s second superseding indictment against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who is currently in custody, on charges of “offenses that relate to Assange’s alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States.” In response, Wikileaks tweeted: “The ‘Star Witness’ of the new superseding indictment is a diagnosed sociopath/ convicted conman/ child abuser/ FBI informant who was found guilty in Iceland of impersonating #Assange”, with a link to the indictment summary. The person Wikileaks is referring to is Sigurður Ingi Þórðarson, better known in the media as Siggi hakkari, or Siggi the Hacker. While the full text of the indictment does not mention Sigurður by name, it does state in part: “In early 2010, around the same time that ASSANGE was working with [Chelsea] Manning to obtain classified information, ASSANGE met a 17-year-old in NATO Country-1 (“Teenager”), who provided ASSANGE with data stolen from a bank.” Iceland is indeed a NATO country, and Sigurður was 17 at the time this alleged incident took place. Further details in the indictment make it clear that the “Teenager” in question can be no one other than Sigurður. Wikileaks’ characterisation of Sigurður in their tweet is a matter of public record. In 2014, Sigurður was charged embezzlement, fraud, and theft adding up to about 30 million ISK. He ended up being ordered to pay WikiLeaks 7 million ISK as well as being sentenced to prison for 2 years for embezzlement and financial fraud. In 2015, he was sentenced to three years in prison for sexually assaulting nine boys between the ages of 15 and 20 on multiple occasions (note that the linked article also details his other financial crimes). A psychologist who examined him found that, while he was competent to stand trial, that he was psychopathic. All of this, incidentally, happened after Sigurður began working as an informant against Wikileaks for the FBI, in 2011. Assange is currently in custody in the UK, awaiting extradition to the United States. In a recent interview with the Grapevine, Wikileaks editor-in- chief Kristinn Hrafnsson vowed that they would fight the extradition, stating in part that Assange’s arrest violates both international law and “moral decency”. Note: Due to the effect the Coronavirus is having on tourism in Iceland, it’s become increasingly difficult for the Grapevine to survive. If you enjoy our content and want to help the Grapevine’s journalists do things like eat and pay rent, please consider joining our High Five Club. You can also support us by checking out our shop, loaded with books, apparel and other cool merch, that you can buy and have delivered right to your door. WikiLeaks Founder Charged in Computer Hacking Conspiracy. ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Julian P. Assange, 47, the founder of WikiLeaks, was arrested today in the United Kingdom pursuant to the U.S./UK Extradition Treaty, in connection with a federal charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to break a password to a classified U.S. government computer. According to court documents unsealed today, the charge relates to Assange’s alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States. The indictment alleges that in March 2010, Assange engaged in a conspiracy with Chelsea Manning, a former intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army, to assist Manning in cracking a password stored on U.S. Department of Defense computers connected to the Secret Internet Protocol Network (SIPRNet), a U.S. government network used for classified documents and communications. Manning, who had access to the computers in connection with her duties as an intelligence analyst, was using the computers to download classified records to transmit to WikiLeaks. Cracking the password would have allowed Manning to log on to the computers under a username that did not belong to her. Such a deceptive measure would have made it more difficult for investigators to determine the source of the illegal disclosures. During the conspiracy, Manning and Assange engaged in real-time discussions regarding Manning’s transmission of classified records to Assange. The discussions also reflect Assange actively encouraging Manning to provide more information. During an exchange, Manning told Assange that “after this upload, that’s all I really have got left.” To which Assange replied, “curious eyes never run dry in my experience.” Assange is charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, John C. Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, and Nancy McNamara, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, made the announcement after the charges were unsealed. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Doherty-McCormick, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kellen S. Dwyer, Thomas W. Traxler and Gordon D. Kromberg, and Trial Attorneys Matthew R. Walczewski and Nicholas O. Hunter of the Justice Department’s National Security Division are prosecuting the case. The extradition will be handled by the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs. A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:18- cr-111. An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court. 40+ Rights Groups Call on UK to Free Julian Assange. Dozens of press freedom, human rights, and privacy rights organizations across five continents have co-signed an open letter to the U.K. government, calling for the immediate release of imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The publisher, who turns 49 years old today in HMP Belmarsh, is facing extradition to the United States where he has been indicted under the Espionage Act for WikiLeaks’ 2010-11 publications of the Iraq War Logs, the Afghan War Diaries, and State Department cables. If convicted, Mr Assange would face up to 175 years in prison, “tantamount to a death sentence.” The co-signers write, “This [indictment] is an unprecedented escalation of an already disturbing assault on journalism in the US, where President Donald Trump has referred to the news media as the ‘enemy of the people’. Whereas previous presidents have prosecuted whistleblowers and other journalistic sources under the Espionage Act for leaking classified information, the Trump Administration has taken the further step of going after the publisher.” Seventeen of the 18 charges against Mr Assange are under the 1917 Espionage Act, marking the U.S.’s first-ever attempt to prosecute the publication of truthful information in a fundamental test of the First Amendment’s protection of press freedoms. Mr Assange has also been charged with conspiring to violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which uses language similar to the Espionage Act. Reporters without Borders, PEN International, ARTICLE19, the International Federation of Journalists, and the National Union of Journalists are among the 40 rights groups who have signed on to the letter, initiated by the Courage Foundation, a whistleblower support network which campaigns for Mr Assange’s freedom and the public’s right to know. Carles Torner, Executive Director of PEN International, said: “This indictment effectively opens the door to criminalising activities that are vital to many investigative journalists who write about national security matters. Beyond the case itself, we are concerned that the mere fact that Assange now risks extradition and potentially decades behind bars if convicted in the USA has a chilling effect on critical journalism, which is essential for exposing the truth about crimes committed by governments.” Rebecca Vincent, Director of International Campaigns for Reporters without Borders said, “As Mr Assange spends his 49th birthday behind bars, it remains clear that the US government will continue to target him at all costs. It is up to the UK government to uphold its own obligations to protect freedom of information and not enable a politically motivated prosecution by another state. Mr Assange has clearly been targeted for his contributions to public interest reporting. All charges against him should be dropped and he should be released without further delay.” On 24 June 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a second superseding indictment against Mr Assange, adding no new charges but expanding on the charge for conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. “The government’s relentless pursuit of Julian Assange poses a grave threat to journalists everywhere and to the public’s right to know”, said Barry Pollack, an attorney for Mr Assange in the United States, calling the new indictment “yet another chapter in the U.S. Government’s effort to persuade the public that its pursuit of Julian Assange is based on something other than his publication of newsworthy truthful information.” Press freedom groups have warned since his arrest and initial indictment in April 2019 that a U.S. conviction for Mr Assange—an Australian citizen who operated in Europe and was granted asylum and citizenship by Ecuador—would criminalise publishing around the world, allowing the United States to dictate what journalists can publish beyond its borders. The United Kingdom, which is detaining Mr Assange on the U.S.’s behalf, has the power to stop the extradition process and let him walk free immediately. The letter concludes, “We call on the UK government to release Mr Assange without further delay and block his extradition to the US – a measure that could save Mr Assange’s life and preserve the press freedom that the UK has committed to championing globally.” Mr Assange’s extradition proceedings, which commenced for one week in February 2020 in London, are scheduled to continue for three weeks beginning 7 September.