Thread by @Williamrt

Julian Assange held back 15,000 documents to prevent harm to US government bit.ly/33EboZ8 via @ComputerWeekly #Assange

@ComputerWeekly Its day eight of proceedings in the Old Bailey of Julian Assange's extradtion. The hearing is about to start. I will post updates here in between taking notes. #Assange @ComputerWeekly

@ComputerWeekly Professor John Sloboda is giving evidence #Assange

@ComputerWeekly John Sloboda has finished giving evidence. Joel Smith for the US asks for a recess until after lunch. Judge Baraitster express concern at the slow progress in hearing witnesses. #Assange

@ComputerWeekly Report: Assange revelations among most important in US history, says Daniel Ellsberg bit.ly/3ktpZgK via @ComputerWeekly #Assange

@ComputerWeekly I am back online and waiting for Carey Shenkman to give remote evidence #Assange

@ComputerWeekly For as it happens live tweets, I would also recommend following @kgosztola and @jamesdoleman

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman The court is trying to resolve technical problems with the remote link to Carey Shekman #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman There will be a report on @ComputerWeekly soon on this mornings evidence from John Sloboda co-founder of the Iraq Body Count, an NGO which monitors civilian war causalities. #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Iraq Body Count was able to identify 15,000 civilian deaths that would otherwise have been unreported from the Iraq War logs published by WikiLeaks in October 2010 #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman IBC developed software to redact 400,000 documents to remove information that could identify people who shared information with US forces who might be at risk #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Joel Smith QC for the US government said that the documents contained examples of names of sources that had been put at risk#Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman "If these were in the heavily redacted logs published in October 2010 this is the first I have heard of it", said Sloboda #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Hearing starts. Shenkman will speak through the phone and be visible on video, because of technical problems #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman There is a five minute recess while the court makes sure Shenkman has received a bundle of evidence emailed to him at 9am UK time while he was asleep #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Hearings are finished for today #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Brief recap of evidence of Carey Shenkman follows. He is an expert in the history of the US Espionage Act 1917. He said the Act came out of one of the most oppressive eras in US history when president Woodrow Wilson to crush dissent against US participation in the war. #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Shenkman said that the Espionage Act was extremely broad in scope. The first 2,000 prosecutions were political prosecutions of individuals, including presidential Eugene Debs who was sentence to 10 years in prison or making a protest speech #Assange.

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Shenkman said the Espionage Act was one of the most contentious Acts in the US. It relies on proprietorial discretion to prevent abuse. It could potentially be used against anyone passing information relating to national security or non declassified information. #Asssange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman That Act was used to bring more prosecutions of media sources under President Obama than initiated under all previous administrations combined. #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Shenkman said that there is precedent for using the Espionage Act to prosecute the press. Successive administrations have considered prosecutions against publishers but in each case they have been abandoned because of political or press freedom issues #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Shenkman has listed 11 examples of political attempts to go after the press using the Espionage Act. The first three involved grand juries, but in each case non of them returned charges. #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman He said of the attempted prosecutions of journalists under the Espionage Act "It is clear that these were high level political decisions involving the President of the US and the Attorney General" #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman The Nixon administration and CIA threatened to kill investigative journalist Jack Anderson for publishing a top secret report into the war between Indian and Pakistan. But Nixon declined to prosecute him under the Espionage Act just before an election #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman The Gerald Ford administration considered prosecuting Seymour Hersh under the Espionage Act or disclosing naval taps into Russian communications. "They did not come to fruition" said Shenkman #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Judge Harvie Wilkinson said that press organisations probably could not be prosecuted under the Espionage Act. Bu he said targeting of the press is prevented by political safeguards rather than any defence in law. #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Shenkman said that at the time WikiLeaks published leaks from Chelsea Manning, there would be nothing to suggest that a journalist would receive an indictment for publishing classified information #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman The media environment in 2010 was that this type of publication is routine and encouraged by many government officials for their own gain or to promote their own policies, Shenkman told Mark Summers QC #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman The custom and practice of the Department of Justice was not to use the Espionage Act to prosecute the press. #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman In 2013 the press was 'very nervous' because of actions under the Obama regime, said Shenkman. Former state department employee Stephen Kim was prosecuted under the Espionage Act and Fox News reporter James Rosen was treated as an accomplice #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman "There was huge criticism in the press," said Shenkman. President Obama later said that leak investigations could chill investigative journalism and journalists should not be at legal risk for their jobs #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Attorney General Holder late said that the greatest regret of his career was his department characterising James Rosen as a suspeced co-conspiracy in violation of the Espionage Act #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Shenkman was cross examined by Clair Dobbin for the prosecution. She focused not on his testimony but asked questions about his previous work with lawyer Michael Ratner, who had represented #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman She referred to an article that included Carey Shenkman's byline, among others, describing him as a member of Julian Assange's defence team. #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Shenkman: "Often times my bylines are described in ways I would want more editorial control over... I would not say it is false but it certainly could be qualified because I was working for Micheal Ratner #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman There was a long series of questions over the contents of the article and what Shenkman's views were on whether #Assange was being arbitrarily detained in the Ecuadorian Embassy,

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Shenkman pointed out that the article had nothing to do with his testimony on the history of the Espionage Act and the media. Dobbin said she wanted to test whether his expert opinion was academic and balanced, not withstanding his previous work for Ratner representing #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Shenkman: "There are many cases where prosecutors regularly become judges but we don't say that judges are unable to be unbaised because they represent the government". #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman A long period of questioning followed about whether Shenkman represented WikiLeaks as well as Julian Assange when he worked for lawyer Michael Ratner between 2013 and 2016. #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Dobbin questioned what qualifications Shenkman had to be a constitutional historian. She said she assumed that he was not being paid for his work in the extradition proceedings #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Dobbin referred to comments made by Ratner in 2015 that there was no doubt that that the US was coming after WikiLeaks 'in spades.'#Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Shenkman said that he could not speak for Ratner. He was not familiar with every conversation in the law firm. "In the food chain I was the plankton," he said #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Shenkman had not had time to read the bundle of documents he received that morning before his cross examination. #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman He told Dobbin: "The questions you are raising are hypothetical questions of US law. it is not clear why you need me o respond. The scope of my subject is the history of the Espionage Act #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman I am leaving out much of the discussion for the benefit of anyone reading this. In summary Shenkman declined to give yes or no answers to questions of law that he felt could not be answered without a nuanced answer. #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman For example Dobbin asked Shenkman whether he agreed that a journalist involved in hacking government databases would be protected under the First Amendment #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman "I would want you to explain hacking. The CFFA (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act) uses the term unauthorised access," said Shenkman. #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Dobbin pressed whether a journalist involved in unauthorised access of a computer system would have First Amendment protection. #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman "What is authorised and unauthorised access is highly contenious under US law," said Shenkman. What about a someone trying decrypt an encrypted hash tag to hack a government database, Dobbin asked. #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Dobbin: "Are you going to maintain that if a journalist is involved in criminal activity they may be able to use the First Amendment?" #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman Shenkman: "It is highly contentious.. There are books written about it. You would have to know the specific circumstances depending on the situation." #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman The prosecution ran out of time for cross examination. Judge Vanessa Baraister said she did not want to hear an application for more time. "You take the consequences of your own approach" #Assange

@ComputerWeekly @kgosztola @jamesdoleman That is all for today. I will be back tomorrow. Thank you to everyone for following and retweeting. #Assange