No Evidence that Assange Induced Manning to Leak
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that federal investigators “have been unable to uncover evidence that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange induced an Army private to leak government documents to his website.” This development, if it holds, appears to undermine DOJ’s hopes of prosecuting Assange as a conspirator to Bradley Manning’s undoubtedly illegal leak of classified information. It appears to leave only the possibility of charging Assange with some combinat
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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that federal investigators “have been unable to uncover evidence that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange induced an Army private to leak government documents to his website.” This development, if it holds, appears to undermine DOJ’s hopes of prosecuting Assange as a conspirator to Bradley Manning’s undoubtedly illegal leak of classified information. It appears to leave only the possibility of charging Assange with some combination of possessing, distributing, and publishing classified information, which are harder charges to bring, and which are also charges that, if successful, would be the most damaging to traditional American press freedoms.
Jack Goldsmith is the Learned Hand Professor at Harvard Law School, co-founder of Lawfare, and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Before coming to Harvard, Professor Goldsmith served as Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel from 2003-2004, and Special Counsel to the Department of Defense from 2002-2003.
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