Professor Andrew Kent spoke to Bloomberg’s June Grasso about the new charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange that allege he violated the espionage act by conspiring to obtain and disclose classified information.
Does this establish a precedent? I take it that that’s one of the things that news organizations and defenders of the first amendment are worried about.
Again, it depends a bit on what the government proves and what a court requires the government to prove. A court could interpret the statute to require a showing that Assange acted with some bad purpose to harm the United States, harm the security of the United States. I think if it does that then it’s not as much of a precedent because, as I said, journalists generally do not act without purpose at all, they act with the purpose of informing the public. If the government does not have to prove that, if the court doesn’t require them to, then it is a broader precedent and raises more concerns.
