Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and Democrat House Rules Committee ranking member Jim McGovern have sent a joint letter to Joe Biden asking him to pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Assange was freed after reaching a plea deal with the United States Justice Department. He had been imprisoned in the UK’s Belmarsh prison for five years after spending seven years in the Ecuadorian Embassy with questionable protection of political asylum.
Both congressmen have long supported Assange and the freedom to publish.
The letter began, “We write, first, to express our appreciation for your administration’s decision last spring to facilitate a resolution of the criminal case against publisher Julian Assange and to withdraw the related extradition request that had been pending in the United Kingdom.”
BREAKING: U.S. Lawmakers @RepMcGovern and @RepThomasMassie call on President Biden to pardon Julian Assange. #PardonAssange pic.twitter.com/qVvHZPuKhA
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 28, 2024
The congress members continued:
This brought an end to Mr. Assange’s protracted detention and allowed him to reunite with his family and return to his home country of Australia. That said, we are deeply concerned that the agreement that ended the case required Mr. Assange to plead guilty to felony charges under section 793 of the Espionage Act. As you know, the decision to prosecute Mr. Assange under the Espionage Act set off alarms among Members of Congress and advocates for freedom of expression and freedom of the press. Put simply, there is a long-standing and well-grounded concern that section 793, which criminalizes the obtaining, retaining, or disclosing of sensitive information, could be used against journalists and news organizations engaged in their normal activities, particularly those who cover national security topics. This risk reportedly informed the Obama administration’s decision not to prosecute Mr. Assange.
The terms of Mr. Assange’s plea agreement have now set a precedent that greatly deepens our concern. A texics of prosecutions under the Espionage Act makes clear that Mr. Assange’s case is the first time the Act has been deployed against a publisher. We share the view of Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists, who reacted to news of the plea agreement by saying, “While we welcome the end of his detention, the U.S.’s pursuit of Assange has set a harmful legal precedent by opening the way for journalists to be tried under the Espionage Act if they receive classified material from whistleblowers. This should never have been the case.”
We therefore urge you to consider issuing a pardon for Mr. Assange. A pardon would remove the precedent set by the plea and send a clear message that the U.S. government under your leadership will not target or investigate journalists and media outlets simply for doing their jobs. Thank you for considering this request.
Last year, McGovern and Massie led 16 Members of Congress in “calling on the Biden administration to drop all charges and halt extradition proceedings against Australian publisher Julian Assange.”
The publisher was facing charges under the Espionage Act for publishing the Iraq and Afghan War Logs that were given to him by whistleblower Chelsea Manning. If convicted, he would have faced a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison for publishing the leaked materials.
Under the plea deal, Assange was sentenced to 62 months in prison, with credit for his time in Belmarsh, allowing him to return to his home in Australia.
He pled guilty to the charges under “Conspiracy To Obtain and Disclose National Defense Information.”
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