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"The news that criminal charges have apparently been filed against Mr. Assange is even more troubling than the haphazard manner in which that information has been revealed," Barry Pollack, one of Assange's attorneys, said in a statement. (Photo: Reuters)
Free speech advocates and civil libertarians are warning that fundamental press freedoms are under threat after the Trump Justice Department accidentally revealed in an unrelated court filing that secret charges have been filed against journalist Julian Assange.
For nearly six years, the Wikileaks founder and publisher has been living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid extradition to the U.S. for publishing classified and embarrassing information about the global superpower.
"The government bringing criminal charges against someone for publishing truthful information is a dangerous path for a democracy to take."
--Barry Pollack, Assange attorney
"The news that criminal charges have apparently been filed against Mr. Assange is even more troubling than the haphazard manner in which that information has been revealed," Barry Pollack, one of Assange's attorneys, said in a statement. "The government bringing criminal charges against someone for publishing truthful information is a dangerous path for a democracy to take."
While it is not entirely clear how mention of the Assange charges ended up in an entirely unrelated filing, experts told the Guardian it was likely a simple copy-paste error.
\u201cSCOOP: US Department of Justice "accidentally" reveals existence of sealed charges (or a draft for them) against WikiLeaks' publisher Julian Assange in apparent cut-and-paste error in an unrelated case also at the Eastern District of Virginia. https://t.co/wrjlAbXk5Z\u201d— WikiLeaks (@WikiLeaks) 1542338074
Written by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kellen Dwyer, the filing calls for the charges against Assange to remain hidden from the public "due to the sophistication of the defendant and the publicity surrounding the case."
"I hope people see how precedent the Trump administration wants to get against WikiLeaks under the Espionage Act can easily be turned around and used on mainstream reporters."
--Trevor Timm, Freedom of the Press Foundation
The charges, Dwyer continued, "need to remain sealed until Assange is arrested."
Though it is not yet clear what specific charges have been filed against Assange, press freedom advocates immediately raised alarm at the dangerous prospect of an individual being prosecuted for publishing classified information--something journalists and major newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post do all the time.
Journalist and Intercept co-founder Glenn Greenwald, in a column posted Friday morning, detailed why any prosecution of Assange for his work as a journalist would have profoundly negative implications and placed the ongoing attack on Wikileaks in the context of broader discussions of press freedoms:
Over the last two years, journalists and others have melodramatically claimed that press freedoms were being assaulted by the Trump administration due to trivial acts such as the President spouting adolescent insults on Twitter at Chuck Todd and Wolf Blitzer or banning Jim Acosta from White House press conferences due to his refusal to stop preening for a few minutes so as to allow other journalists to ask questions. Meanwhile, actual and real threats to press freedoms that began with the Obama DOJ and have escalated with the Trump DOJ - such as aggressive attempts to unearth and prosecute sources - have gone largely ignored if not applauded.
But prosecuting Assange and/or WikiLeaks for publishing classified documents would be in an entirely different universe of press freedom threats. Reporting on the secret acts of government officials or powerful financial actors - including by publishing documents taken without authorization - is at the core of investigative journalism. From the Pentagon Papers to the Panama Papers to the Snowden disclosures to publication of Trump's tax returns to the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, some of the most important journalism over the last several decades has occurred because it is legal and constitutional to publish secret documents even if the sources of those documents obtained them through illicit or even illegal means.
"I hope people see how precedent the Trump administration wants to get against WikiLeaks under the Espionage Act can easily be turned around and used on mainstream reporters," Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, wrote on Twitter. "Hard to overstate how dangerous it would be for press freedom."
"If Assange is charged by the U.S. government in relation to the Manning leak and WikiLeaks, the implications for U.S. journalism, and the chilling effect, would be extremely serious," added Christian Christensen, an American professor of journalism at Stockholm University in Sweden. "Dislike of Assange should not blind people in the U.S. to this fact."
Others echoed those warnings online, noting that all journalists--regardless of political persuasions--should immediately condemn any charges against the WikiLeaks founder for publishing state secrets as a grave threat to the press in the United States and around the world.
\u201cAssange is a real [choose your insult here] but the Espionage Act is a huge, not theoretical, active and present danger to press freedom in the US. Anyone that supports the First Amendment should oppose using it in this way https://t.co/bTI3RAkCnz\u201d— Evan Greer is on Mastodon (@Evan Greer is on Mastodon) 1542332656
\u201cDeeply troubling if the Trump administration, which has shown little regard for media freedom, would charge Assange for receiving from a government official and publishing classified information--exactly what journalists do all the time. https://t.co/PkyH1UMHDK\u201d— Kenneth Roth (@Kenneth Roth) 1542354017
"Any prosecution of Mr. Assange for WikiLeaks' publishing operations would be unprecedented and unconstitutional, and would open the door to criminal investigations of other news organizations," Ben Wizner--director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project--said in a statement on Friday. "Moreover, prosecuting a foreign publisher for violating U.S. secrecy laws would set an especially dangerous precedent for U.S. journalists, who routinely violate foreign secrecy laws to deliver information vital to the public's interest."
News of the unspecified charges against Assange by the Trump administration comes amid growing concerns that Ecuador could be preparing to hand the WikiLeaks founder over to U.K. authorities, making his extradition to the U.S. far more likely.
As the Wall Street Journal reported shortly before the charges against Assange were inadvertently revealed, Trump's Justice Department said it was "increasingly optimistic it will be able to get him into a U.S. courtroom."
In a statement to the Washington Post, Pollack, Assange's lawyer, ripped the Trump administration's recklessness and echoed dire warnings about the severe threat to journalists posed by potential charges against Assange.
"Obviously, I have no idea if he has actually been charged or for what, but the notion that the federal criminal charges could be brought based on the publication of truthful information is an incredibly dangerous precedent to set," Pollack said.
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Free speech advocates and civil libertarians are warning that fundamental press freedoms are under threat after the Trump Justice Department accidentally revealed in an unrelated court filing that secret charges have been filed against journalist Julian Assange.
For nearly six years, the Wikileaks founder and publisher has been living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid extradition to the U.S. for publishing classified and embarrassing information about the global superpower.
"The government bringing criminal charges against someone for publishing truthful information is a dangerous path for a democracy to take."
--Barry Pollack, Assange attorney
"The news that criminal charges have apparently been filed against Mr. Assange is even more troubling than the haphazard manner in which that information has been revealed," Barry Pollack, one of Assange's attorneys, said in a statement. "The government bringing criminal charges against someone for publishing truthful information is a dangerous path for a democracy to take."
While it is not entirely clear how mention of the Assange charges ended up in an entirely unrelated filing, experts told the Guardian it was likely a simple copy-paste error.
\u201cSCOOP: US Department of Justice "accidentally" reveals existence of sealed charges (or a draft for them) against WikiLeaks' publisher Julian Assange in apparent cut-and-paste error in an unrelated case also at the Eastern District of Virginia. https://t.co/wrjlAbXk5Z\u201d— WikiLeaks (@WikiLeaks) 1542338074
Written by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kellen Dwyer, the filing calls for the charges against Assange to remain hidden from the public "due to the sophistication of the defendant and the publicity surrounding the case."
"I hope people see how precedent the Trump administration wants to get against WikiLeaks under the Espionage Act can easily be turned around and used on mainstream reporters."
--Trevor Timm, Freedom of the Press Foundation
The charges, Dwyer continued, "need to remain sealed until Assange is arrested."
Though it is not yet clear what specific charges have been filed against Assange, press freedom advocates immediately raised alarm at the dangerous prospect of an individual being prosecuted for publishing classified information--something journalists and major newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post do all the time.
Journalist and Intercept co-founder Glenn Greenwald, in a column posted Friday morning, detailed why any prosecution of Assange for his work as a journalist would have profoundly negative implications and placed the ongoing attack on Wikileaks in the context of broader discussions of press freedoms:
Over the last two years, journalists and others have melodramatically claimed that press freedoms were being assaulted by the Trump administration due to trivial acts such as the President spouting adolescent insults on Twitter at Chuck Todd and Wolf Blitzer or banning Jim Acosta from White House press conferences due to his refusal to stop preening for a few minutes so as to allow other journalists to ask questions. Meanwhile, actual and real threats to press freedoms that began with the Obama DOJ and have escalated with the Trump DOJ - such as aggressive attempts to unearth and prosecute sources - have gone largely ignored if not applauded.
But prosecuting Assange and/or WikiLeaks for publishing classified documents would be in an entirely different universe of press freedom threats. Reporting on the secret acts of government officials or powerful financial actors - including by publishing documents taken without authorization - is at the core of investigative journalism. From the Pentagon Papers to the Panama Papers to the Snowden disclosures to publication of Trump's tax returns to the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, some of the most important journalism over the last several decades has occurred because it is legal and constitutional to publish secret documents even if the sources of those documents obtained them through illicit or even illegal means.
"I hope people see how precedent the Trump administration wants to get against WikiLeaks under the Espionage Act can easily be turned around and used on mainstream reporters," Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, wrote on Twitter. "Hard to overstate how dangerous it would be for press freedom."
"If Assange is charged by the U.S. government in relation to the Manning leak and WikiLeaks, the implications for U.S. journalism, and the chilling effect, would be extremely serious," added Christian Christensen, an American professor of journalism at Stockholm University in Sweden. "Dislike of Assange should not blind people in the U.S. to this fact."
Others echoed those warnings online, noting that all journalists--regardless of political persuasions--should immediately condemn any charges against the WikiLeaks founder for publishing state secrets as a grave threat to the press in the United States and around the world.
\u201cAssange is a real [choose your insult here] but the Espionage Act is a huge, not theoretical, active and present danger to press freedom in the US. Anyone that supports the First Amendment should oppose using it in this way https://t.co/bTI3RAkCnz\u201d— Evan Greer is on Mastodon (@Evan Greer is on Mastodon) 1542332656
\u201cDeeply troubling if the Trump administration, which has shown little regard for media freedom, would charge Assange for receiving from a government official and publishing classified information--exactly what journalists do all the time. https://t.co/PkyH1UMHDK\u201d— Kenneth Roth (@Kenneth Roth) 1542354017
"Any prosecution of Mr. Assange for WikiLeaks' publishing operations would be unprecedented and unconstitutional, and would open the door to criminal investigations of other news organizations," Ben Wizner--director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project--said in a statement on Friday. "Moreover, prosecuting a foreign publisher for violating U.S. secrecy laws would set an especially dangerous precedent for U.S. journalists, who routinely violate foreign secrecy laws to deliver information vital to the public's interest."
News of the unspecified charges against Assange by the Trump administration comes amid growing concerns that Ecuador could be preparing to hand the WikiLeaks founder over to U.K. authorities, making his extradition to the U.S. far more likely.
As the Wall Street Journal reported shortly before the charges against Assange were inadvertently revealed, Trump's Justice Department said it was "increasingly optimistic it will be able to get him into a U.S. courtroom."
In a statement to the Washington Post, Pollack, Assange's lawyer, ripped the Trump administration's recklessness and echoed dire warnings about the severe threat to journalists posed by potential charges against Assange.
"Obviously, I have no idea if he has actually been charged or for what, but the notion that the federal criminal charges could be brought based on the publication of truthful information is an incredibly dangerous precedent to set," Pollack said.
Free speech advocates and civil libertarians are warning that fundamental press freedoms are under threat after the Trump Justice Department accidentally revealed in an unrelated court filing that secret charges have been filed against journalist Julian Assange.
For nearly six years, the Wikileaks founder and publisher has been living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid extradition to the U.S. for publishing classified and embarrassing information about the global superpower.
"The government bringing criminal charges against someone for publishing truthful information is a dangerous path for a democracy to take."
--Barry Pollack, Assange attorney
"The news that criminal charges have apparently been filed against Mr. Assange is even more troubling than the haphazard manner in which that information has been revealed," Barry Pollack, one of Assange's attorneys, said in a statement. "The government bringing criminal charges against someone for publishing truthful information is a dangerous path for a democracy to take."
While it is not entirely clear how mention of the Assange charges ended up in an entirely unrelated filing, experts told the Guardian it was likely a simple copy-paste error.
\u201cSCOOP: US Department of Justice "accidentally" reveals existence of sealed charges (or a draft for them) against WikiLeaks' publisher Julian Assange in apparent cut-and-paste error in an unrelated case also at the Eastern District of Virginia. https://t.co/wrjlAbXk5Z\u201d— WikiLeaks (@WikiLeaks) 1542338074
Written by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kellen Dwyer, the filing calls for the charges against Assange to remain hidden from the public "due to the sophistication of the defendant and the publicity surrounding the case."
"I hope people see how precedent the Trump administration wants to get against WikiLeaks under the Espionage Act can easily be turned around and used on mainstream reporters."
--Trevor Timm, Freedom of the Press Foundation
The charges, Dwyer continued, "need to remain sealed until Assange is arrested."
Though it is not yet clear what specific charges have been filed against Assange, press freedom advocates immediately raised alarm at the dangerous prospect of an individual being prosecuted for publishing classified information--something journalists and major newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post do all the time.
Journalist and Intercept co-founder Glenn Greenwald, in a column posted Friday morning, detailed why any prosecution of Assange for his work as a journalist would have profoundly negative implications and placed the ongoing attack on Wikileaks in the context of broader discussions of press freedoms:
Over the last two years, journalists and others have melodramatically claimed that press freedoms were being assaulted by the Trump administration due to trivial acts such as the President spouting adolescent insults on Twitter at Chuck Todd and Wolf Blitzer or banning Jim Acosta from White House press conferences due to his refusal to stop preening for a few minutes so as to allow other journalists to ask questions. Meanwhile, actual and real threats to press freedoms that began with the Obama DOJ and have escalated with the Trump DOJ - such as aggressive attempts to unearth and prosecute sources - have gone largely ignored if not applauded.
But prosecuting Assange and/or WikiLeaks for publishing classified documents would be in an entirely different universe of press freedom threats. Reporting on the secret acts of government officials or powerful financial actors - including by publishing documents taken without authorization - is at the core of investigative journalism. From the Pentagon Papers to the Panama Papers to the Snowden disclosures to publication of Trump's tax returns to the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, some of the most important journalism over the last several decades has occurred because it is legal and constitutional to publish secret documents even if the sources of those documents obtained them through illicit or even illegal means.
"I hope people see how precedent the Trump administration wants to get against WikiLeaks under the Espionage Act can easily be turned around and used on mainstream reporters," Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, wrote on Twitter. "Hard to overstate how dangerous it would be for press freedom."
"If Assange is charged by the U.S. government in relation to the Manning leak and WikiLeaks, the implications for U.S. journalism, and the chilling effect, would be extremely serious," added Christian Christensen, an American professor of journalism at Stockholm University in Sweden. "Dislike of Assange should not blind people in the U.S. to this fact."
Others echoed those warnings online, noting that all journalists--regardless of political persuasions--should immediately condemn any charges against the WikiLeaks founder for publishing state secrets as a grave threat to the press in the United States and around the world.
\u201cAssange is a real [choose your insult here] but the Espionage Act is a huge, not theoretical, active and present danger to press freedom in the US. Anyone that supports the First Amendment should oppose using it in this way https://t.co/bTI3RAkCnz\u201d— Evan Greer is on Mastodon (@Evan Greer is on Mastodon) 1542332656
\u201cDeeply troubling if the Trump administration, which has shown little regard for media freedom, would charge Assange for receiving from a government official and publishing classified information--exactly what journalists do all the time. https://t.co/PkyH1UMHDK\u201d— Kenneth Roth (@Kenneth Roth) 1542354017
"Any prosecution of Mr. Assange for WikiLeaks' publishing operations would be unprecedented and unconstitutional, and would open the door to criminal investigations of other news organizations," Ben Wizner--director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project--said in a statement on Friday. "Moreover, prosecuting a foreign publisher for violating U.S. secrecy laws would set an especially dangerous precedent for U.S. journalists, who routinely violate foreign secrecy laws to deliver information vital to the public's interest."
News of the unspecified charges against Assange by the Trump administration comes amid growing concerns that Ecuador could be preparing to hand the WikiLeaks founder over to U.K. authorities, making his extradition to the U.S. far more likely.
As the Wall Street Journal reported shortly before the charges against Assange were inadvertently revealed, Trump's Justice Department said it was "increasingly optimistic it will be able to get him into a U.S. courtroom."
In a statement to the Washington Post, Pollack, Assange's lawyer, ripped the Trump administration's recklessness and echoed dire warnings about the severe threat to journalists posed by potential charges against Assange.
"Obviously, I have no idea if he has actually been charged or for what, but the notion that the federal criminal charges could be brought based on the publication of truthful information is an incredibly dangerous precedent to set," Pollack said.
Rep. Greg Casar accused Trump and his Republican allies of "trying to pull off the most corrupt bargain I've ever seen."
Progressives rallied across the country on Saturday to protest against US President Donald Trump's attempts to get Republican-run state legislatures to redraw their maps to benefit GOP candidates in the 2026 midterm elections.
The anchor rally for the nationwide "Fight the Trump Takeover" protests was held in Austin, Texas, where Republicans in the state are poised to become the first in the nation to redraw their maps at the president's behest.
Progressives in the Lone Star State capital rallied against Trump and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for breaking with historical precedent by carrying out congressional redistricting in the middle of the decade. Independent experts have estimated that the Texas gerrymandering alone could yield the GOP five additional seats in the US House of Representatives.
Speaking before a boisterous crowd of thousands of people, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) charged that the Texas GOP was drawing up "districts set up to elect a Trump minion" in next year's midterms. However, Doggett also said that progressives should still try to compete in these districts, whose residents voted for Trump in the 2024 election but who also have histories of supporting Democratic candidates.
"Next year, [Trump is] not going to be on the ballot to draw the MAGA vote," said Doggett. "Is there anyone here who believes that we ought to abandon any of these redrawn districts and surrender them to Trump?"
Leonard Aguilar, the secretary-treasurer of Texas AFL-CIO, attacked Abbott for doing the president's bidding even as people in central Texas are still struggling in the aftermath of the deadly floods last month that killed at least 136 people.
"It's time for Gov. Abbott to cut the bullshit," he said. "We need help now but he's working at the behest of the president, on behalf of Trump... He's letting Trump take over Texas!"
Aguilar also speculated that Trump is fixated on having Texas redraw its maps because he "knows he's in trouble and he wants to change the rules midstream."
Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) went through a litany of grievances against Trump and the Republican Party, ranging from the Texas redistricting plan, to hardline immigration policies, to the massive GOP budget package passed last month that is projected to kick 17 million Americans off of Medicaid.
However, Casar also said that he felt hope watching how people in Austin were fighting back against Trump and his policies.
"I'm proud that our city is fighting," he said. "I'm proud of the grit that we have even when the odds are stacked against us. The only answer to oligarchy is organization."
Casar went on to accuse Trump and Republicans or "trying to pull off the most corrupt bargain I've ever seen," and then added that "as they try to kick us off our healthcare, as they try to rig this election, we're not going to let them!"
Saturday's protests are being done in partnership with several prominent progressive groups, including Indivisible, MoveOn, Human Rights Campaign, Public Citizen, and the Communication Workers of America. Some Texas-specific groups—including Texas Freedom Network, Texas AFL-CIO, and Texas for All—are also partners in the protest.
Judge Rossie Alston Jr. ruled the plaintiffs had failed to prove the groups provided "ongoing, continuous, systematic, and material support for Hamas and its affiliates."
A federal judge appointed in 2019 by US President Donald Trump has dismissed a lawsuit filed against pro-Palestinian organizations that alleged they were fronts for the terrorist organization Hamas.
In a ruling issued on Friday, Judge Rossie Alston Jr. of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia found that the plaintiffs who filed the case against the pro-Palestine groups had not sufficiently demonstrated a clear link between the groups and Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The plaintiffs in the case—consisting of seven Americans and two Israelis—were all victims of the Hamas attack that killed an estimated 1,200 people, including more than 700 Israeli civilians.
They alleged that the pro-Palestinian groups—including National Students for Justice in Palestine, WESPAC Foundation, and Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundation—provided material support to Hamas that directly led to injuries they suffered as a result of the October 7 attack.
This alleged support for Hamas, the plaintiffs argued, violated both the Anti-Terrorism Act and the Alien Tort Statute.
However, after examining all the evidence presented by the plaintiffs, Alston found they had not proven their claim that the organizations in question provide "ongoing, continuous, systematic, and material support for Hamas and its affiliates."
Specifically, Alston said that the claims made by the plaintiffs "are all very general and conclusory and do not specifically relate to the injuries" that they suffered in the Hamas attack.
"Although plaintiffs conclude that defendants have aided and abetted Hamas by providing it with 'material support despite knowledge of Hamas' terrorist activity both before, during, and after its October 7 terrorist attack,' plaintiffs do not allege that any planning, preparation, funding, or execution of the October 7, 2023 attack or any violations of international law by Hamas occurred in the United States," Alston emphasized. "None of the direct attackers are alleged to be citizens of the United States."
Alston was unconvinced by the plaintiffs' claims that the pro-Palestinian organizations "act as Hamas' public relations division, recruiting domestic foot soldiers to disseminate Hamas’s propaganda," and he similarly dismissed them as "vague and conclusory."
He then said that the plaintiffs did not establish that these "public relations" activities purportedly done on behalf of Hamas had "aided and abetted Hamas in carrying out the specific October 7, 2023 attack (or subsequent or continuing Hamas violations) that caused the Israeli Plaintiffs' injuries."
Alston concluded by dismissing the plaintiffs' case without prejudice, meaning they are free to file an amended lawsuit against the plaintiffs within 30 days of the judge's ruling.
"Putin got one hell of a photo op out of Trump," wrote one critic.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday morning tried to put his best spin on a Friday summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin that yielded neither a cease-fire agreement nor a comprehensive peace deal to end the war in Ukraine.
Writing on his Truth Social page, the president took a victory lap over the summit despite coming home completely empty-handed when he flew back from Alaska on Friday night.
"A great and very successful day in Alaska!" Trump began. "The meeting with President Vladimir Putin of Russia went very well, as did a late night phone call with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, and various European Leaders, including the highly respected Secretary General of NATO."
Trump then pivoted to saying that he was fine with not obtaining a cease-fire agreement, even though he said just days before that he'd impose "severe consequences" on Russia if it did not agree to one.
"It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Cease-fire Agreement, which often times do not hold up," Trump said. "President Zelenskyy will be coming to DC, the Oval Office, on Monday afternoon. If all works out, we will then schedule a meeting with President Putin. Potentially, millions of people's lives will be saved."
While Trump did his best to put a happy face on the summit, many critics contended it was nothing short of a debacle for the US president.
Writing in The New Yorker, Susan Glasser argued that the entire summit with Putin was a "self-own of embarrassing proportions," given that he literally rolled out the red carpet for his Russian counterpart and did not achieve any success in bringing the war to a close.
"Putin got one hell of a photo op out of Trump, and still more time on the clock to prosecute his war against the 'brotherly' Ukrainian people, as he had the chutzpah to call them during his remarks in Alaska," she wrote. "The most enduring images from Anchorage, it seems, will be its grotesque displays of bonhomie between the dictator and his longtime American admirer."
She also noted that Trump appeared to shift the entire burden of ending the war onto Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and he even said after the Putin summit that "it's really up to President Zelenskyy to get it done."
This led Glasser to comment that "if there's one unwavering Law of Trump, this is it: Whatever happens, it is never, ever, his fault."
Glasser wasn't the only critic to offer a scathing assessment of the summit. The Economist blasted Trump in an editorial about the meeting, which it labeled a "gift" to Putin. The magazine also contrasted the way that Trump treated Putin during his visit to American soil with the way that he treated Zelenskyy during an Oval Office meeting earlier this year.
"The honors for Mr. Putin were in sharp contrast to the public humiliation that Mr. Trump and his advisers inflicted on Mr. Zelenskyy during his first visit to the White House earlier this year," they wrote. "Since then relations with Ukraine have improved, but Mr. Trump has often been quick to blame it for being invaded; and he has proved strangely indulgent with Mr. Putin."
Michael McFaul, an American ambassador to Russia under former President Barack Obama, was struck by just how much effort went into holding a summit that accomplished nothing.
"Summits usually have deliverables," he told The Atlantic. "This meeting had none... I hope that they made some progress towards next steps in the peace process. But there is no evidence of that yet."