Thread by @richimedhurst

Day 14 of the Julian #Assange extradition hearing begins at the Old Bailey.

Live updates in this thread:

First witness to testify is computer forensics expert Patrick Eller.

Prosecution sent him its bundle in the middle of the night (typical). Judge gives the defense an hour for Eller to go through the documents. #AssangeTrial

While we wait, watch a full video summary of Day 12 & 13 #AssangeTrial

A cornerstone of the prosecution's case is that #Assange allegedly helped @xychelsea Manning crack a password. Eller will testify in regards to this.

justice.gov/opa/press-rele…

Defense requests the judge allocate more time to prepare closing arguments, once again asking for 4 weeks starting from next Friday, when witness testimonies are concluded.

Defense notes the late submission by prosecution of superseding indictment; that #Assange needs more time.

Judge Baraitser agrees to give defense 4 weeks to prepare written closing arguments.

She initially appeared unfavorable to this idea.

As Baraitser noted a few moments ago, this most likely means a decision will not come until early 2021. #AssangeTrial

Defense reads statement from Jakob Augstein, journalist at Der Freitag when it published story on David Leigh's book and Cablegate in 2011.

Augstein confirms cablegate file came from Domscheit-Berg ; Assange called Der Freitag asking them not to publish.

freitag.de/autoren/steffe…

Lots of back and forth on whether Judge will permit new evidence to be submitted by defense regarding prison conditions in US. Baraitser complains she received some witness statements at 11pm a few nights ago. (Yet she accepts an entire superseding indictment past deadline?)

This is huge because the defense wanted testimony from 2 witnesses, one of them a psychologist, working directly in US Bureau of Prisons with first-hand knowledge of conditions that #Assange would be subject to. She refuses and moves on.

Patrick Eller's testimony begins.

A bit more on Eller's credentials. He is an expert in computer forensics with 20 years of military experience, master’s degree in Digital Forensics and Cyber Investigations, ran a global digital forensics program for the US Army.

Several bombshell points from Eller:

-Convo between #Assange & Manning not necessarily about gov. computer
-Chelsea used a local account, no access to wider network
-Even if pw was cracked, no access to ROE files
-She had already sent most files to JA before pw cracking convo(!)

Encryption key was missing, so cracking password using the partial hash in chat log would not work. Even if successful, it would've only unlocked password to "ftp user" – which did not have access to T-Drive.

Defense establishes with Eller that even if pw to FTP account was hypothetically obtained, Manning's IP address would've still been traceable, compromising her ID. She already knew of ways to stay anonymous (booting from a CD with a Linux live image).

This above point is important to note because the jabber chat between Manning and Assange, where they talk about cracking the pw, is cited by the US as evidence of conspiracy and attempt to cover tracks. This doesn't hold up– she already knew how to copy files undetected.

.@Snowden briefly talking about this in 2019

Prosecution begins cross-examination of Eller.

Lewis wants Eller to concede Manning could've cracked the LM hash because of weaknesses still present up until 2016.

Eller corrects him, stating vulnerabilities were patched all the way back in 1999 by Microsoft. Impossible for Manning to crack with bruteforce.

Eller asserts that he believes defense's argument that it was commonplace for soldiers to bypass security on machines without admin privileges in order to download music and install games.

Court is adjourned for lunch.

Court resumes from lunch.

Eller being re-examined by defense.

Eller concedes that we can’t establish if alias “Nathaniel Frank” is certainly Assange. Eller maintains that the password could not have been cracked using the hash value.

Defense asks Eller how many people he estimates have access to SIPREnet (classified DoD network). Eller: "somewhere in the millions".

To paraphrase Ellsberg, they don't even bother covering up the war crimes anymore, almost anyone can access them.

Once again going over the FTP access being pointless since Manning could've just booted from a linux live CD to hide her tracks. Moreover IP address would've still incriminated someone using FTP. So this entire allegation about conspiring to crack pw to obtain ftp access is moot.

Eller's testimony is concluded.

Discussion regarding the disclosure of #Assange's medical reports to the press. Both prosecution and defense in agreement there's no need and would breach privacy; burden is on the press to argue why it should be disclosed.

If I may add my two cents, I think more than enough was disclosed.

The whole point of bringing up #Assange's medical history is to argue against extradition under s.91 of the Extradition Act. Not for click bait, sensationalism and further stigmatization of mental illness by MSM.

Court is adjourned until Monday.

I will be going live shortly to give a full summary of today's #Assange hearing: youtube.com/richardmedhurst

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Full video summary: