Are espionage charges against Assange meant to warn against publishing unredacted Mueller Report?

[Grasswire2]

I've been wondering if there is a connection.

[dameatball]

1. That and publishing anything leaked that is not in Trump's interest. Goes beyond Mueller.

[emmaverybo]

4. He is being charged with offenses that have serious implications for freedom of the press, but

not for anything to do with potentially helping elect Trump, throw a spanner into Hilary’s election chances. True, the charges are political in motivation, but what has he leaked that goes against Trump?
According to WaPo, he “behaved as an instrument of the Kremlin operation...which may have secured Trump’s victory.” This statement is based on US intelligence agencies, the international media reports, and special counsel.
He will not be charged with his anti-Hilary activity. As per extradition agreement,
he can only be charged for what he is now, and thus, should extradition be secured, he will never face any charges coming out of Mueller’s investigation into ties with Stone, his receiving info Russian military operatives stole from DNC.
Barr is the one, as I understand it, to handle the extradition charges. He is never going to initiate
charges on Assange’s assisting Russians.

[dameatball]

5. I sort of skimmed over the Assange part and was thinking of this more as a weapon to be used against

free press. You know, those enemies of the people that keep picking on the president by writing true things about him. Punishing leakers and those that publish or broadcast those leaks. You answered the OP more accurately than I did.

[onecaliberal]

2. Yes

[sop]

3. Maybe Trump and Putin want to silence Assange

Last edited Sat May 25, 2019, 02:32 PM - Edit history (1)

Keep him from talking about receiving intelligence from the Kremlin, his coordination with Roger Stone (and others) and Wikileaks' involvement in the 2016 election. With Barr in charge at the DOJ, they can do whatever they want with Assange, and make sure he never sees the light of day in a Supermax. They won't cut him up with a bone saw, but he'll never speak publicly again.

I'm always in favor of First Amendment rights, and generally support whistleblower protections, but Assange is such an unsavory character, it makes defending him difficult. He's not exactly the poster boy for freedom of speech, he's no Daniel Ellsberg. Still, it's obvious the administration is sending a message to future leakers, particularly anyone at the FBI or the IRS who might anonymously send a stack of interesting documents to the NYT or WaPo.

[NotASurfer]

6. It's another wall in the bunker

The foundation was "remember, this is a rigged election". Knee-jerk assurances that he was wrong forestalled an immediate investigation

Abuses of power by governors, and the Senate, simply framing the inevitable impeachment process as "so what, everyone does it, this is retaliation"

And with the framing in place, now they're pouring concrete to try to create a fanatical defense of their dear leader, their stable genius leader, so that when classified portions of the Mueller report are published, he can order the final counteroffensive in an effort to outlast the anti-fascist forces at the gates of the Republic of MAGAstan

Barr is another concrete wall. Classified information from Mueller report, will be met with classified information of Barr's choice, as he uses everything at his disposal in a brutal effort to decimate Resistance

At the end of the day, the thing that matters most to the Narcissist-in-Chief is himself. He will not care if nothing but flaming ruins are left around him; that will in his mind evidence only the failure of a nation to recognize and genuflect toward his genius.

Hang in there. This has the potential to become messy, and brutal

[customerserviceguy]

7. This would have happened in any case

Let's say we had President Hillary Clinton right now, do you think she's an Assange fan?

As soon as he wore out his welcome at the Ecuadorian embassy, he was going to be tossed out on his ass, and scooped up by police forces, and charged wherever possible.