Rep. Thomas Massie Urges Biden to Drop Prosecution of Julian Assange, Brings His Brother to State of the Union

[noumoe]

Rep. Thomas Massie Urges Biden to Drop Prosecution of Julian Assange, Brings His Brother to State of the Union

Gabriel Shipton, Assange's brother, says Assange's health is deteriorating after suffering a mini-stroke.

@RepThomasMassie
: "Julian Assange is in prison right now for the "crime" of publishing actual facts that were inconvenient to our government.

We've got a 200-plus-year tradition of having freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and the Assange case is a very dangerous precedent on several levels.

One, because it has a chilling effect on the media, some people may receive documents that they know'd be in the public interest to publish, but they'll feel intimidated by this case.

And then I think it's also a bad precedent because the United States is going to another country and plucking a citizen not of the United States out of that country and bringing them here to prosecute under our jurisdiction."

@GabrielShipton
: "We want to highlight a bipartisan letter sent to the Biden administration last year, which stated that this prosecution is unprecedented. It's a threat to a free press. It's a threat to the First Amendment rights of all Americans."

@RepThomasMassie
: "There's a third-party candidate (
@RobertKennedyJr
) who is going to take votes from either of these candidates, who has supported Julian Assange. I think it's relevant to Congress to have Gabriel come here because we have this bipartisan letter from Republicans and Democrats who've sent this, but it's also relevant because it's an election year here in the United States."

"RFK Jr. is taking the right position on this. It's not just the popular position. It's the right thing to do. It's true that Trump did not provide clemency to Julian Assange, and neither has Biden. But every time you change administrations, even when an administration wins reelection, they change staff, and staff becomes policy. And, I think there's a real opportunity in November for things to change."

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If I remember correctly, Trump wanted to pardon Julian Assange and Edward Snowden at the end of his presidency, but Mitch McConnell and other Republican Senators threatened to vote in favor of his impeachment after the events of January 6th if he proceeded with those pardons?

Regardless, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, or Robert Kennedy Jr. should obviously pardon Assange and Snowden.