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The superseding indictment just unsealed against Julian Assange is exactly what the first indictment wasn't:
17 of the 18 charges are for violating the Espionage Act, under which there's never previously been a successful prosecution of a third party (as opposed to the leaker).
17 of the 18 charges are for violating the Espionage Act, under which there's never previously been a successful prosecution of a third party (as opposed to the leaker).
This is going to cause significant complications in the UK (there's a "political offense" exception to our extradition treaty), and on this side of the Atlantic, where the new charges would provoke a major test case of whether the First Amendment protects the right to publish.
The issue isn't whether Assange is a "journalist"; this will be a major test case because the text of the _Espionage Act_ doesn't distinguish between what Assange allegedly did and what mainstream outlets sometimes do, even if the underlying facts/motives are radically different.
For a detailed parsing of the statutory text, and why it raises a First Amendment issue in cases like these, see this article I wrote in 2007:
digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewconten…
digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewconten…
