![](\"https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/5ce708941dc26e151d3b87ed\/master\/pass\/Assange-508571834.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Credit to Author: Brian Barrett| Date: Thu, 23 May 2019 22:40:25 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n On Thursday, the <\/span>Department of Justice unsealed new charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange<\/a>. Unlike the previous indictment\u2014which focused narrowly on an apparent offer to help crack a password<\/a>\u2014the 17 superseding counts focus instead on alleged violations of the Espionage Act. In doing so, the DOJ has aimed a battering ram at the freedom of the press<\/a>, whether you think Assange is a journalist or not.<\/p>\n The indictment, which you can read in full below, alleges that Assange published classified information over a dozen times, an act expressly forbidden by the Espionage Act, which Congress first passed in 1917. But the Espionage Act has only rarely, and never successfully, been applied to the recipient of a leak. \u201cFor the first time in the history of our country, the government has brought criminal charges against a publisher for the publication of truthful information,\u201d says Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union\u2019s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. \u201cThis is an extraordinary escalation of the Trump administration's attacks on journalism, and a direct assault on the First Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n "If they can bring this charge and convict Assange on it, they can bring it against anyone."<\/p>\n Bradley Moss, Mark Zaid PC<\/p>\n The Trump administration\u2019s position that the Espionage Act should apply here would have immediate and broadly-felt repercussions far beyond WikiLeaks. Because however you personally care to classify Assange, the acts at the heart of this latest indictment mirror those made by journalists every day. They\u2019re the reason US citizens know about PRISM, and the Pentagon Papers, and any number of other revelations around abuses of power and governmental impropriety.<\/p>\n \u201cThe people leaking it are obviously violating their secrecy agreement and breaking the law, but as long as the journalist doesn\u2019t pay the leaker, or help them hack passwords, this is what investigative journalists in the national security community do on a day-to-day basis,\u201d says Bradley Moss, an attorney at Mark Zaid PC who focuses on national security and intelligence issues. \u201cIf they can bring this charge and convict Assange on it, they can bring it against anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s in part because the Espionage Act doesn\u2019t carve out any exemptions for journalists; that protection has come from the First Amendment, and from a recognition among previous administrations that prosecuting publishers of leaks would set a dangerous precedent. In fact, Thursday\u2019s charges deal specifically with incidents that occurred in 2009 and 2010, during the Obama administration. The attorney general at the time, Eric Holder, passed on these same charges for specifically that reason.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was absolutely looked at, and the department ultimately made the decision that it wasn\u2019t appropriate to charge Assange for publishing classified information,\u201d says former Obama DOJ spokesperson Matthew Miller. \u201cNot because he\u2019s a journalist\u2014we didn\u2019t believe he was\u2014but that the same legal theories you would apply to him could be used against a reporter for any major media outlet. That was the driving force.\u201d<\/p>\n John Demers, who leads the Justice Department\u2019s National Security Division, attempted to draw a distinction between Assange and traditional media outlets to reporters Thursday. \u201cSome say that Assange is a journalist, and that he should be immune from prosecution for these actions. The department takes serious the role of journalists in our democracy,\u201d Demers said. \u201cIt is not and has never been the department\u2019s policy to target them for reporting. But Julian Assange is no journalist.\u201d<\/p>\n Unfortunately, that distinction doesn\u2019t matter in the eyes of the Espionage Act. A successful prosecution of Assange would establish a precedent that publishing sensitive national security materials is a crime, full stop. From there, the Trump administration\u2014and whoever follows\u2014would be emboldened to prosecute similar journalistic acts. Not only that; they\u2019d get to decide who counts as a journalist in the first place.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the court concludes that the Espionage Act can apply even to people who are invoking First Amendment protections, that gives DOJ all kinds of leverage going forward,\u201d says Moss, \u201cand a precedent in which they get to decide who is and is not a journalist for the purposes of criminal liability.\u201d<\/p>\n The Justice Department also wouldn\u2019t embark on a case like this unless it was prepared to argue it all the way to the Supreme Court, says Miller. \u201cYou\u2019re using the law in a way that it\u2019s never been used before,\u201d he says, noting that the conservative-leaning makeup of the current Supreme Court may have emboldened DOJ to act.<\/p>\n "It\u2019s no exaggeration to say the First Amendment itself is at risk."<\/p>\n Trevor Timm, Freedom of the Press Foundation<\/p>\n President Trump himself has frequently castigated the press as the \u201cenemy of the people,\u201d and expressed a specific disdain for leaks. But whether or not you read the Assange charges as an end-around to erode the First Amendment, or take Demers\u2019 word that it\u2019s a targeted strike against a longtime agitator, is moot. The end result of a successful conviction will be the same: Journalists at risk of jail time, subject to the whims of an adversarial Justice Department.<\/p>\n \u201cPut simply, these unprecedented charges against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks are the most significant and terrifying threat to the First Amendment in the 21st century,\u201d Trevor Timm, cofounder of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement. \u201cThe ability of the press to publish facts the government would prefer remain secret is both critical to an informed public and a fundamental right. This decision by the Justice Department is a massive and unprecedented escalation in Trump\u2019s war on journalism, and it\u2019s no exaggeration to say the First Amendment itself is at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n Bringing charges against Assange for alleged hacking at least made sense. Journalists would expect to be\u2014and have been\u2014prosecuted for similar<\/a>. But the blast radius of an Espionage Act conviction against Assange would include every working national security journalist. Surely the Justice Department is aware of those implications. And that\u2019s what makes its decision to go forward with the charges all the more unnerving.<\/p>\n