Consortium News Editor-in-Chief Joe Lauria, the late U.S. Sen. Mike Gravel’s close friend and aide, and veteran journalist, today begins a six-part series on Julian Assange and the Espionage Act, which exposes it as a measure that was first challenged by Alexander Hamilton and other patriots. This is part of a growing mobilization to free Assange.
In modern times, Lauria reports that although several U.S. Administrations had come close to punishing journalists for revealing defense information, they all pulled back until the Assange case. The First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits Congress from passing any law, including the Espionage Act, that curtails freedom of the press. The case of Assange is the first time a publisher and journalist have ever been charged under the 1917 Espionage Act for possessing and publishing state secrets.
Biden’s Justice Department, now led by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, has not reversed the Trump Administration’s decision to seek extradition of Assange from British prison.