Judge refuses to reveal if Assange has been charged

[struggle4progress]

BY LYDIA WHEELER AND JACQUELINE THOMSEN - 01/30/19 04:21 PM EST

A federal district court judge ruled on Wednesday that the government does not have to reveal if criminal charges have been secretly filed against WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange, whose organization published online emails Russians stolen from the Democratic National Committee.

Judge Leonie Brinkema, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, denied the request brought by the Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press without prejudice.

Brinkema acknowledged both the need for the government to be able to investigate criminal activity and successfully bring to justice those charged with criminal conduct, and the public's right to access judicial records and proceedings.

But until there are certain disclosure that charges have in fact been filed, she called the committee's claims that it has a common law and First Amendment right to see the documents premature ...

https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/427724-judge-refuses-to-force-government-to-reveal-if-julian-assange-has-been

[brooklynite]

1. Why doesn't Assange pop in and find out?

[struggle4progress]

2. Focus on two dates to make sense of Russia probe

BY KIM WEHLE, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 01/31/19 10:30 AM EST

... June 9, 2016 is the date of the infamous Trump Tower meeting in New York City ...

... the meeting went down like this: Trump Jr. received an email from a British music publicist stating that a Russian pop star had asked him to arrange a meeting to “provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father” ...

Oct. 7, 2016 is another core “collusion” date ...

At 4:32 p.m., WikiLeaks began tweeting emails hacked from the email account of Clinton’s campaign Chairman John Podesta ...

Three days later, Trump gloated, “I love WikiLeaks,” at a rally ...

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/427785-how-to-make-sense-of-the-russia-probe-focus-on-two-key-dates