December, 10 2021, 07:47am EDT
Assange to face extradition from United Kingdom: Freedom of the Press Foundation responds
WASHINGTON
A UK appeals court has allowed the United States to proceed in its extradition of Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange, overturning an earlier ruling that denied prosecutorial efforts based on the inhumane conditions of the American prison system.
Assange has courted controversy, and previously faced sexual assault charges and allegations of cooperating with intelligence agencies. Neither of those issues are at play in the current legal proceedings, which specifically charge the Wikileaks publisher under the Espionage Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, largely for actions rightfully recognized as protected news gathering practices.
These charges have been met with near-universal condemnation from the civil liberties, human rights, and journalistic communities; Freedom of the Press Foundation has joined ACLU, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Committee to Protect Journalists, and a coalition of more than two dozen organizations to repeatedly urge President Biden's Department of Justice to drop its prosecution.
Today's ruling is an alarming setback for press freedom in the United States and around the world, and represents a notable escalation in the use of the Espionage Act in the "War on Whistleblowers" that has expanded through the past several presidential administrations.
The following statement can be attributed to Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation and an expert witness for the defense at the trial level:
These proceedings, and today's ruling, are a black mark on the history of press freedom. That United States prosecutors continued to push for this outcome is a betrayal of the journalistic principles the Biden administration has taken credit for celebrating. As brave whistleblowers have explained for decades, this kind of abuse of the Espionage Act against sources -- and now journalists and publishers -- is an embarrassment to basic ideals of justice and to core First Amendment values.
We now await any possible appeal, or extradition and United States trial.
Freedom of the Press Foundation continues to urge the Department of Justice to terminate its pursuit of this prosecution, and to commit to not using the Espionage Act against journalists and their sources in other prosecutions. We urge Congress, too, to reform the Espionage Act so it can no longer be abused in this manner.
Freedom of the Press Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to helping support and defend public-interest journalism focused on exposing mismanagement, corruption, and law-breaking in government. We work to preserve and strengthen the rights guaranteed to the press under the First Amendment through crowdfunding, digital security and internet advocacy.
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"By not disclosing the vendors that actually provided legal services, the Trump-affiliated committees effectively blocked the public from knowing which attorneys and firms are being paid—and how much."
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A campaign finance watchdog on Wednesday filed a Federal Election Commission complaint accusing former President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign, affiliated political groups, and an accounting firm of violating U.S. law in a scheme "seemingly designed to obscure the true recipients of a noteworthy portion of Trump's legal bills."
The Washington, D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center (CLC) said that "evidence appears to show an illegal arrangement between several Trump-affiliated committees and a compliance firm named Red Curve Solutions that is designed to obscure the identities of those providing legal services and how much they are being paid."
"Voters have a right to know how the presidential campaigns and other committees supporting presidential candidates spend their money."
CLC alleges that the Trump campaign, Trump's political action committee (PAC) Save America, and three affiliated organizations "violated federal reporting requirements based on a scheme in which the committees reportedly paid over $7.2 million—described as 'reimbursement for legal' costs or expenses"—to Red Curve.
The watchdog also said that Red Curve appears to be "making or facilitating illegal contributions that violate either federal contribution limits or the prohibition on corporate contributions."
According to CLC:
Red Curve is a domestic limited liability company that offers compliance and FEC reporting services but does not appear to offer any legal services. It is managed by Bradley Crate, who also serves as the treasurer for each of the five Trump-affiliated committees concerned in this complaint, as well as over 200 other federal committees.
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Trump—who is the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee—faces 91 federal and state felony charges related to his role in the January 6 insurrection and his organization's business practices. He is currently on trial in New York for allegedly falsifying business records related to hush money payments to cover up sex scandals during the 2016 election cycle. The twice-impeached former president has been open about his use of campaign donations to pay his legal costs.
The new CLC filing comes a day after the watchdog filed separate FEC complaints urging investigations into a pair of Trump-affiliated "scam PACs," which "pretend to fundraise for major candidates or issues while secretly diverting almost all of their donors' money back into fundraising or the fraudsters' own pockets."
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Three Republicans in the Arizona House of Representatives on Wednesday joined with Democrats to advance legislation that would repeal an 1864 ban on abortion—a development rights advocates welcomed while stressing that the fight is far from over.
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Florez noted that "even with the repeal of the Civil War-era ban, the state will still have a ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy that denies people access to critical care. And lawmakers continue to attack Arizonans' ability to access reproductive healthcare. Our right to control our bodies and lives is hanging on by a thread."
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