Prosecutors taking aim at WikiLeaks
WASHINGTON — Two media reports on Thursday said US prosecutors are preparing or closely considering charges against the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, including its founder Julian Assange, for revealing sensitive government secrets.
CNN reported authorities are preparing to seek Assange’s arrest. The Washington Post reported prosecutors are weighing charges against the organization’s members after the Obama-era Justice Department declined to do so.
Possible charges include conspiracy, theft of government property and violating the Espionage Act, the newspaper said, though any charges would need approval from high-ranking officials in the Justice Department.
Themovecomesjustweeks after WikiLeaks released nearly 8,000 documents that itsaysrevealsecretsaboutthe CIA’s cyberespionage tools for breaking into computers, cellphones and even smart TVs.
It previously published 250,000 State Department cables and embarrassed the US military with hundreds of thousands of logs from Iraq and Afghanistan.
CIA director Mike Pompeo last week denounced the group as a “hostile intelligence service” and a threat to US national security.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions told reporters on Thursday that Assange’s arrest is a priority as the Justice Department steps up efforts to prosecute people who leak classified information to the media.
“We’ve already begun to step up our efforts and whenever a case can be made, we will seek to put some people in jail,” Sessions said.
Their condemnation of WikiLeaks differed sharply from President Donald Trump’s past praise of the organization.
Before last year’s election, Trump said he was happy to see WikiLeaks publish private, politically damaging emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta.
Trump was less thrilled about the release of CIA tactics, which the White House said was different because it involved information about secretive national security tools.
The Post said it wasn’t clear whether prosecutors are also looking at WikiLeaks’ role in the Podesta case.
Assange’s attorney, Barry Pollack, said authorities have not apprised him of the status of their investigation.
Political asylum
Assange, an Australian, has resided the last four years in Ecuador’s embassy in London.Hereceivedpoliticalasylum after skipping bail to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted in connection with a rape allegation.
Assange has said WikiLeaks acts in the name of liberty and privacy.
The Post reported that Justice Department officials in the Obama administration believed prosecuting WikiLeaks would be similar to prosecuting a news organization for publishing classified information.
“The Department of Justice should not be treating the publication of truthful information as a reason for a criminal investigation of the publisher,” Pollack said.