If Biden Believes Journalism Is Not a Crime, He'll Drop Charges Against Julian Assange
www.commondreams.org
Biden spoke powerfully in defense of press freedom Saturday, but his own Department of Justice contradicts this by continuing Trump's attack against the WikiLeaks founder.

“Journalism is not a crime!” declared Biden Saturday, as he put aside the evening’s punch lines for a serious show of solidarity with jailed and persecuted journalists around the world, including Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who has been falsely accused of espionage by the Russians, and Austin Tice, a kidnapped American journalist who is believed to be held by the Syrian government.

  • Hirom@beehaw.org
    6·
    2 years ago

    These are good arguments against charging journalists. Now how could Joe Biden stop the prosecution of Assange?

    I doubt he can commute his sentence, as to my knowledge Assange wasn’t sentenced. Could he simply drop charges given separation of power? Or would he have to reform the espionage act trough a law?

      • Hirom@beehaw.org
        6·
        2 years ago

        I assumed a pardon could only be done after a sentence. But apparently it was already done before sentencing.

        Pardons have been used for presumptive cases, such as when President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon, who had not been charged with anything, over any possible crimes connected with the Watergate scandal,[8] but the Supreme Court has never considered the legal effect of such pardons.

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_pardons_in_the_United_States

    • ailiphilia@feddit.itOP
      31·
      2 years ago

      I’m not a lawyer, but there appears to be a legal way as Biden’s rival Robert Kennedy says.

      Instead of championing free speech, the U.S. actively persecutes journalists and whistleblowers. I’ll pardon brave truth-tellers like Julian Assange and investigate the corruption and crimes they exposed. This isn’t the Soviet Union. The America I love doesn’t imprison dissidents.

      Edit for addition: EFJ and its affiliates once again call on the UK authorities to release Julian Assange

      The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) passed on the initiative [of the Italian journalists’ union] to its affiliates in Europe: 19 of them decided to follow the Italian example and grant Julian Assange membership (or honorary membership) of their organisations. The EFJ and its affiliates once again call on the UK authorities to release Julian Assange.