Thread by @HoarseWisperer

The superseding indictment for Julian Assange is up and can be found at the link below.

Among the salient points (IMHO):

- Adds 17 new charges (I believe)
- All relate to Chelsea Manning’s hacks and attempted hacking
- Indictment includes detail

1/

assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6024…

First Amendment Slippery Slopers are going to get all squishy about whether espionage is actually bad if the goal is to publish the espionage product.

That’s an argument unlikely to sway public opinion given people like Osama bin Laden were using WikiLeaks info to plot harm.

2/

Further, the indictment lists out a multiple examples of people Assange willfully and knowingly endangered and likely caused to be killed because he simply didn’t give a sh** about anything other than harming the U.S.

3/

And lastly, the indictment references other parties “not known to the grand jury”.

That may well mean Chelsea Manning (the very much non-hero who stonewalled this grand jury) but may include others.

4/

Legally, the case is going to be annoying to follow given the way some in the media (*cough* Ari Melber *cough*) got all twisted up at about Assange’s arrest.

No, he isn’t a journalist.

No, theft of intel to harm an enemy state doesn’t become journalism by merely posting it.

And finally, no, there is no damn slippery slope that leads from:

1) prosecution of a rogue foreign overseeing a conspiracy to do harm to the US

*to*

2) a risk that Joe Smith at Tiger Beat might get pinched because someone slipped him a leaked doc he didn’t aid and abet.