(London, U.K.) United States President Donald Trump attempted to extort Julian Assange, defense lawyers for the WikiLeaks publisher argued in the first day of a momentous press freedom case.
Edward Fitzgerald QC told Belmarsh Magistrates’ Court that Trump offered the carrot of a presidential pardon to Assange if he revealed the source of a trove of leaked documents that came from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in 2016.
Assange did not comply with the request — as it is WikiLeaks protocol to not reveal the identity of their sources — and the Trump administration then came down on the journalist with “disproportionate” force, the court was told.
“Trump used the threat of prosecution as a means of extortion,” Fitzgerald said. “This way of trying to extract co-operation from Assange is yet another example of how this case is marred by an abuse of power.”
Fitzgerald also raised 11 additional examples of how power was abused and legal protocols were ignored in targeting and prosecuting Assange.
This included spying on Assange while he sought political asylum in Ecuador’s London embassy, a service provided to the CIA by Spanish security firm UC Global.
Fitzgerald also told the court that evidence submitted by the defense showed how Assange’s lawyers were considered “high-priority targets” by the CIA and had been spied upon in violation of attorney-client privileges.
The U.S. prosecution team, led by James Lewis QC, argued however that abuse of power claims do not fall within the jurisdiction of extradition hearings and thus should be dismissed.
Although the matter was not settled, Fitzgerald told the court that the extortion and spying efforts were also demonstrations of how Assange’s prosecution was “clearly” political. The U.S.-U.K. treaty on extradition forbids both parties from handing over prisoners for political offenses.
He pointed to how Assange’s indictment from the Trump administration came several months after the pardon attempt, in addition to raising the president’s concerted efforts to clampdown on whistleblowers and unauthorised leaks.
“The nature of WikiLeaks’ revelations made them a natural enemy of the U.S. government,” he said.
He also raised how the indictment came after President Barack Obama’s administration decided it could not prosecute Assange without prosecuting other journalists.
The charges — which all relate to documents released in 2010 — came after Chelsea Manning had been prosecuted for leaking the documents in the same year. Fitzgerald said that for the Assange charges to come in 2019 shows the political nature of this prosecution.
The case continues.