by Elizabeth Vos, Disobedient Media:

It seems that the shades have finally been ripped off of the persecution of Julian Assange. Fallen by the wayside is the pretense used to justify his arbitrary detention: allegations of sexual misconduct, of Russian involvement, and of aiding Trump’s ascension to the Presidency.

Gone is the pretense that it is not the rabid wolves of the US and UK military state baying, slavering for Assange’s blood. Former intelligence assets in the guise of “journalists” openly call for Assange’s arrest.

Recent reports have indicated that formerly secret charges pending against Julian Assange will focus on material relating to Chelsea Manning and the earliest releases published by WikiLeaks. Alternatively, on WikiLeaks’ Vault7 releases in March 2017 or on the help he and his organisation gave to Edward Snowden to get the NSA whistleblower to safe asylum.

This latest news directly counters allegations published by Russiagate hysterics, who suggested the charges would relate to WikiLeaks’ 2016 publications of the DNC and John Podesta emails. Nonetheless, we can assume that in the coming days and months, establishment hacks will pivot and attack Assange just as loudly and abhorrently as they always have. Few of them will bother to remind their readers that the campaign emails of a political party are not US Government documents, are not classified Secret or Top Secret, and are therefore not going to be the subject of a federal prosecution in the Alexandria Division of the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA), where the jury pool is selected from a population with the highest concentration of US intelligence and defence industry employees in the United States.

The distinction between the possible prosecution of the WikiLeaks co-founder for his 2016 publications versus the earliest WikiLeaks releases is a massively important one. For Russiagate proponents, the support for Assange’s prosecution becomes much more difficult if the charges against the publisher stem from the revelation of Bush-era war crimes, not the exposure of Hillary Clinton and the DNC’s corruption.

As noted by numerous press outlets and press freedom advocates, the prosecution – the end point of the longstanding persecution of Julian Assange – represents, as James Goodale, New York Times’ counsel for the Pentagon Papers, eloquently points out, a grave threat to the freedom of the press, in the United States and all over the world. That US espionage laws would be used against an Australian citizen who has never lived or published in the US, should send a shockwave to every international journalist who comments on US affairs and foreign policy decisions.

In Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi relayed the statements of Assange’s US-based lawyer, Barry Pollack:

“I would think it is not related to the 2016 election since that would seem to fall within the purview of the Office of Special Counsel.”

Another member of Julian Assange’s legal team, Hanna Jonasson, was also quick to clarify confusion on which material served as the basis for the charges against Assange in an informative Twitter thread:

Some journalists keenly cite FBI informer Marcy Wheeler's wild & eager speculations on EDVA's #Assange indictment. But indications so far in fact point to the indictment relating to @xychelsea's case & @WikiLeaks revelations of US wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Cablegate, GITMO.

— Hanna Jonasson (@AssangeLegal) 20 November 2018

Jonasson directly refutes what she referred to as the ‘wildly speculative’ suggestion of security journalist and FBI informant Marcy Wheeler, who claimed that the charges against the former WikiLeaks Editor-In-Chief related to the Russiagate scandal.

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