Why is Julian Assange in court again – and what might happen if he’s extradited to the US?
Today is Julian Assange’s last chance to stop UK officials extraditing him to the US.
It has been almost 12 years since the WikiLeaks founder, now 52, stepped into the Ecuadorian embassy in London to evade arrest.
Over the next two days, the High Court will hear his final appeal against being sent to the US, where he faces charges for helping former military analyst Chelsea Manning download top secret intelligence files that WikiLeaks published online.
Assange‘s wife says he will “die” if he’s extradited. His legal team has also promised to lodge a final appeal at the European Court of Human Rights if this week’s attempt fails.
WikiLeaks founder leaves London’s High Court in 2011. Pic: Reuters
What did WikiLeaks do – and how was Assange involved?
In 2010 and 2011 WikiLeaks published hundreds of thousands of US military and diplomatic documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It has repeatedly been described as “one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States”.
Prosecutors, politicians, and the intelligence community say the disclosure endangered the lives of agents working in the field, but WikiLeaks supporters claim it helped expose alleged wrongdoing by the US.
The leaked documents came from Chelsea Manning, who was working as an analyst for the US military in Iraq at the time.
She was then known as Private Bradley Manning, but now identifies as a woman having transitioned in prison.
Chelsea Manning following her release from prison in 2017. Pic: Twitter/X
According to the indictment, Manning “downloaded four nearly complete databases from departments and agencies of the US”.
They contained “approximately 90,000 Afghan war-related significant activity reports, 400,000 Iraq war-related significant activities reports, 800 Guantanamo Bay detainee assessment briefs, and 250,000 US Department of State cables”.
Among the 750,000 published WikiLeaks documents was a video from 2007 showing a US helicopter firing on a group of civilians in Baghdad. The attack killed 12 people, including two wounded children and two Reuters photographers.
Assange arrives in court in a prison van in 2019. Pic: PA
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According to the indictment, around 7 March 2010, Manning and Assange discussed the value of Guantanamo Bay detainee assessment briefs.
Prosecutors say they have court documents that prove Manning said she was “throwing everything [she had] on JTF [joint task force] GTMO [Guantanamo Bay] at [Assange] now”.
The papers say she later told Assange: “After this upload, that’s all I really have got left,” to which Assange replied: “Curious eyes never run dry in my experience”.
Pamela Anderson visits Julian Assange at Belmarsh prison in 2019. Pic: PA
Late fashion designer Vivienne Westwood at a Free Assange protest. Pic: PA
The following day, the indictment alleges Assange “agreed to assist Manning in cracking a password stored on US Department of Defence computers… connected to the secret internet protocol”.
“Manning was able to log onto the computers under a username that didn’t belong to her,” the indictment reads, adding that Assange provided special software to hack the system.
“Manning then used the computer to download everything WikiLeaks later published,” the indictment concludes, between 28 March and 9 April.
Julian Assange pictured in January 2020
Manning was arrested, tried by court-martial, and later convicted of various espionage offences in 2013, and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Days before he left office in 2017, President Barack Obama reduced her sentence and she was released.
But she was jailed again in 2019 after refusing to give evidence to a grand jury investigation into WikiLeaks and its involvement in the 2016 US election.
US officials have said there was Russian interference in the vote, but Assange has never been charged in relation to that allegation.
WikiLeaks published emails hacked from Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, which resulted in the Democrats suing the website, alongside the Russian state, and Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign team.
An Assange supporter outside court in London in 2022. Pic: PA
What is he charged with?
When Assange was arrested inside the Ecuadorian embassy in May 2019, the US indictment against him was unsealed, revealing a single charge of “conspiracy to commit computer intrusion”.
This was expanded later that month to include 17 new charges under the US Espionage Act, including conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information, conspiracy to commit computer intrusions, obtaining national defence information, and disclosure of national defence information.
The indictment was issued by the Eastern District of Virginia and would mean a total sentence of 170 years in prison, if he was found guilty on all charges.
In June 2020, a US grand jury ruled to “broaden the scope” of Assange’s alleged computer intrusions to claims he worked with hackers to help illegally obtain information for WikiLeaks.
Assange pictured inside his prison van. Pic: PA
How has he avoided extradition so far?
Assange’s political asylum in London dates back to a 2010 Swedish arrest warrant for alleged rape charges.
He took shelter in the embassy after failing to appeal extradition to Sweden, fearing the US was planning charges against him and that he may be sent there after a sentence in the Scandinavian nation.
Assange was inside the embassy for seven years, in which time the Swedish case expired, but the US began compiling its own case.
Eventually the Foreign Office accused Ecuador of preventing the proper course of justice and the South American nation withdrew its asylum offer, paving the way for Assange to be removed from the embassy and arrested in 2019.
Julian Assange and his now-wife Stella Assange (right), formerly part of his legal team. Pic: PA
Since then, he has been held at Belmarsh maximum security prison in south London.
In January 2021 a judge ruled he could not be extradited due to his risk of suicide in a US jail. But the decision was later overturned after the US gave additional assurances.
This week is the final stage of the UK appeals process.
Stella Moris outside HMP Belmarsh after her wedding ceremony
Ahead of the hearing, his wife Stella Assange, who he married while at Belmarsh in March 2022, said: “His health is in decline, physically and mentally.
“His life is at risk every single day he stays in prison – and if he is extradited he will die.”
Assange’s native Australia has tried to intervene in the case, but without success so far.
US
Michael Cohen tells trial he lied and bullied for ex-president and was ‘knee deep’ in Trump ‘cult’
Michael Cohen said he had been “knee deep into the cult of Donald Trump” as he testified for a second day in the ex-president’s trial.
As Trump‘s defence tried to paint the former lawyer and ‘fixer’ as a bitter and fame-hungry former acolyte, he denied being obsessed by his former boss but said he had once “admired him tremendously”.
He is testifying in the case about hush money payments to ex-porn star Stormy Daniels in an attempt to cover up an alleged sexual encounter in 2006.
Trump trial – Day 17 as it happened
Such payouts aren’t illegal, but Trump is accused of falsifying business records to hide it – a claim he denies.
He told the court on Tuesday that loyalty was the reason he kept lying about the payment when it came out in the media.
In 2016 he described Trump as kind, humble, honest and genuine.
The defence asked whether he had believed what he was saying.
“At the time, I was knee-deep into the cult of Donald Trump,” he responded, adding: “I was not lying, no, that’s how I felt.”
Mr Cohen admitted he “missed Trump” at times after he became president.
They have also pointed to hundreds of media appearances, podcasts and interviews in which the disgraced lawyer has mentioned him.
Michael Cohen (right) was once a fiercely loyal confidant of the ex-president. Pic: AP
His credibility was under attack as Mr Cohen has previously admitted lying under oath.
The 57-year-old was jailed after pleading guilty in 2018 to charges relating to the hush money payment and other unrelated offences.
He said that after a FBI raid on his home the same year, Trump had messaged him: “I am the president of the United States, everything is going to be okay, stay tough”.
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Donald Trump denies the liaison with Stormy Daniels and says Mr Cohen acted on his own initiative when he made the payment.
The former lawyer denied that claim in earlier evidence, saying “everything required Trump’s sign-off”.
Mr Trump, who denies the charges, faces several other trials. Pic: Reuters
‘I violated my moral compass’
Mr Cohen – who once said he would take a bullet for his boss – admitted at the end of questioning on Tuesday that he “violated my moral compass” while working for Donald Trump.
“I regret doing things for him that I should not have,” he told the New York court. “Lying, bullying people in order to effectuate the goal.
“I don’t regret working for the Trump Organisation – as I expressed before, [those were] some very interesting, great times,” he added.
“But to keep the loyalty and to do things that he had asked me to do, I violated my moral compass, and I suffered the penalty, as did my family. That is my failure.”
On Monday, the court heard him testify about setting up a shell company to make the $130,000 hush money out of his own money.
Stormy Daniels has also testified in the case. AP/DeeCee Carter/MediaPunch /IPX
Prosecutors say Trump later paid the money back and covered it up by recording it as a legal retainer fee.
He faces 34 counts of falsifying business records over the claims.
Trump – who will take on Joe Biden in his bid to become president again in November – is unlikely to face a custodial sentence if found guilty.
His other cases are potentially more damaging but mired in delays.
They concern allegations of keeping stacks of secret documents after leaving office and trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat. He denies the claims.
US
Eight dead and 40 taken to hospital after bus carrying farm workers involved in Florida collision
Eight people have died and another eight were critically injured after a bus carrying farm workers crashed and overturned in Florida.
The bus was transporting 53 workers when it collided with a pickup truck in Marion County, north of Orlando, the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) said.
The bus then swerved off State Road 40 – a hilly two-lane road that goes through farms – and crashed through a fence, before overturning, authorities said.
The incident took place at 6.35am local time on Tuesday and it is unclear why the two vehicles crashed.
A total of 40 people needed hospital treatment – eight of whom are in a critical condition, the Marion County Fire Rescue confirmed to NBC News.
The driver of the truck was also taken to hospital and more than 30 ambulances attended the scene, NBC News added.
A map showing the location of Dunnellon, Florida. Pic: Datawrapper
Debris can be seen around the bus and both of its emergency hatches are open. Pic: AP
Lieutenant Pat Riordan, from the FHP, told reporters some of those injured are “in very serious condition” and there’s a “high probability” the number of dead could rise.
“At this point, we are conducting a massive traffic homicide investigation,” he said.
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Fire engines and more than 30 ambulances attended the crash site. Pic: AP
Torrential rain and thunderstorms have hit some US regions in recent days – including Marion County – and authorities will be investigating if the weather contributed to the collision.
Photographs from the scene show the bus on its side, with both its rear emergency door and top hatch open.
The bus was transporting 53 people when the crash took place. Pic: AP
The farm workers were being transported to Cannon Farms in Dunnellon, where watermelon harvesting has been taking place.
Following the crash, a post on the farm’s social media account said it will “be closed today out of respect to the losses and injuries endured early this morning”.
“Please pray with us for the families and the loved ones involved in this tragic accident,” the post continued. “We appreciate your understanding at this difficult time.”
Cannon Farms is a family-owned business that has been operational for more than 100 years, according to its website.
They now focus on peanuts and watermelons, which they supply to grocery stores across the US and Canada.
The vehicle transporting the workers was a 2010 International Bus and the pickup truck was a 2001 Ford Ranger, authorities said.
US
Donald Trump ‘not thinking about Melania’ when he paid off Stormy Daniels, says ex-lawyer Michael Cohen
Donald Trump “wasn’t thinking about (his wife) Melania” when he paid off a former porn star, his former lawyer has testified.
Michael Cohen told a court Mr Trump personally approved $130,000 in hush money to Stormy Daniels over an alleged 2006 sexual encounter.
The payout isn’t illegal, but Mr Trump is accused of falsifying records to hide it – a claim he denies.
On Monday, his trial in New York heard from Mr Cohen, once a lawyer and self-described “fixer” for the ex-president.
Mr Trump’s lawyers have painted the hush money as an attempt to protect his wife from rumours and upset.
Michael Cohen has himself been jailed over the payment to Daniels. Pic: Reuters
However, Mr Cohen said his boss was purely concerned with keeping the claims quiet as he ran for the presidency.
“He wasn’t thinking about Melania. This was all about the campaign,” he said, prompting Mr Trump to shake his head in response.
Mr Cohen told the court he’d heard Stormy Daniels was considering selling her story and he told his boss swift action was required.
Mr Trump denies the affair and his lawyers say Mr Cohen acted on his own – a claim he denied in court.
He told jurors in Manhattan that “everything required Mr Trump’s sign-off” and he was ordered to “just do it”.
Mr Cohen said he stumped up the $130,000 himself after Mr Trump told him he would pay him back.
He said he set up a shell company – listed as a “real estate consulting company” – to make the payment.
Stormy Daniels, pictured in January. Pic: AP
Prosecutors say Mr Trump later paid the money back and covered it up by recording it as a legal retainer fee.
He faces 34 counts of falsifying business records over the claims.
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Porn stars, sex scandals and zzzs: A to Z of Trump trial
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Hear Trump and his lawyer discuss hush money
The court also heard a recording of a conversation between Mr Trump and Mr Cohen over hush money said to have been paid to another woman, former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who he also allegedly had an affair with.
Mr Cohen suggests in the recording setting up another company to repay David Pecker – who said he provided the $150,000 to cover up the story.
The former National Enquirer boss previously testified he bought the story to keep it hidden and eventually decided against seeking reimbursement.
Later in the recording, Mr Trump can be heard suggesting the $150,000 might be better off being paid in cash.
Mr Cohen told the court this was to “avoid any type of paper transaction”.
The 57-year-old – who once said he would take a bullet for Mr Trump – worked for him for nearly a decade.
Stormy Daniels, pictured in January. Pic: AP
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He pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance law in 2018 over the Stormy Daniels payment and was jailed, but at the time prosecutors did not bring charges against Mr Trump.
Mr Cohen’s credibility is in the sights of defence lawyers as he has previously admitted lying under oath.
Mr Trump – who will take on Joe Biden in his bid to become president again in November – is unlikely to face a custodial sentence if found guilty.
His other cases are potentially more damaging but mired in delays.
They concern allegations of keeping stacks of secret documents after leaving office and trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat. He denies the claims.
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