Top Democrats demand Julian Assange release

Seven top Democrats argue the pursuit of the WikiLeaks founder undermines ‘the moral standing of the US on the world stage.’

Supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange attend a protest. Picture: AFP.

Seven top Democrats have publicly demanded the US drop all charges against Julian Assange and withdraw its extradition request to the UK, arguing the four-year-old pursuit of the WikiLeaks founder was “undermining the moral standing of the US on the world stage”.

Timed to mark the four-year anniversary of Mr Assange’s arrest in the UK following espionage charges laid by the Trump administration, congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush, and four of their colleagues, issued a five-page letter on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) to US Attorney-General Merrick Garland.

“The prosecution of Julian Assange for carrying out journalistic activities greatly diminishes America’s credibility as a defender [press freedom], effectively granting cover to authoritarian governments who can (and do) point to Assange’s prosecution to reject evidence-based criticisms of their human rights records and as a precedent that justifies the criminalisation of reporting on their activities,” the letter read.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one of the signatories to the letter. Picture: Getty Images via AFP.

“The prosecution of Mr Assange marks the first time in US history that a publisher of truthful information has been indicted under the Espionage Act. The prosecution of Mr Assange, if successful, not only sets a legal precedent whereby journalists or publishers can be prosecuted, but a political one as well,” the letter stated.

The US has been seeking to extradite Mr Assange, 51, accusing him of crimes under the 1917 Espionage Act related to WikiLeaks’ publication in 2010 of vast troves of classified material related to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, which humiliated Washington with embarrassing details about casualties and internal deliberations.

The letter from the high-profile Democrats, who are associated with the far-left of the party, creates an unusual alliance with some Republicans, including far-right Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who have similarly demanded charges against Mr Assange be dropped.

Mr Trump’s eldest son, Don Junior, earlier this month said Mr Assange and Edward Snowden, who has similarly evaded US prosecutors having absconded to Moscow, should be pardoned.

Mr Assange has been locked up at Belmarsh prison in the UK since he was dragged from the Ecuadorean embassy in London on April 11th 2019, where he had lived since 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden (where he was required for questioning on accusations of rape) and the US.

“The Australian government must act quickly to bring this political prosecution to an end before it is too late,” Gabriel Shipton, Mr Assange’s brother, told The Australian in the wake of the letter.

“Progressive politicians today have taken a stand against the heinous prosecution of a publisher for revealing truthful information”.

Former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, in power when the charges were levelled against Mr Assange, in his latest book published in January slammed the native Queenslander as a “scoundrel” who “raped America”, revealing he would be “delighted” when the Australian founder of WikiLeaks was “thrown into an American federal Penitentiary”.

Mr Pompeo, who is reportedly considering a bid for the Republican nomination for president, revealed he lobbied the Ecuadorean embassy in London as America’s top diploma “hard … to kick Assange out of his pathetic accommodations inside … and they finally capitulated on April 11th, 2019”, after which the US “piled on 17 more charges”.

Parliamentarians around the world have issued separate letters in recent days calling on the US to drop the charges against Mr Assange, who faces over 100 years in a maximum-security prison if convicted, including one from 48 Australian MPs from the Coalition, Labor and Green parties.

“If the extradition request is approved, Australians will witness the deportation of one of our citizens from one Aukus partner to another – our closest strategic ally – with Mr Assange facing the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison,” the letter said.