I'm fucking exhausted ...disgusted.
As trial began in the case against Roger Stone for charges he threatened a witness and lied about his attempts to contact Wikileaks, up the street other bad faith actors in Trump's orbit took a meeting with an attorney for Julian Assange. 
At approximately 3pm today Senator Rand Paul's office held a meeting with Gareth Peirce, a celebrated human rights advocate and British lawyer who currently is representing Julian Assange on matters concerning his extradition to the US.
As a solicitor representing a client facing extradition on political charges under the draconian Espionage Act for exposing US war crimes and abuses, Gareth is duty-bound to leave no stone unturned in advocating for her client —but this meeting landed at deeply troubling time.
This week Rand Paul has repeatedly pulled threads at the already threadbare fabric of democratic process by calling on members of the media and others to unmask the identity of the alleged whistleblower.
Whistleblower protection, like source protection, is a foundational tenet in journalistic ethics, and (unless something recently changed) remains paramount within Wikileaks.
Today’s meeting between Julian Assange’s attorney and Rand Paul’s staff was an affront to every core belief once held sacred by Wikileaks supporters. It never should have happened.
To add insult to injury today Rand Paul blocked a resolution reaffirming the Senate's support for whistleblower protections. Protecting the safety of sources is not “fake outrage,” it’s a baseline to due process in these proceedings.
thehill.com/homenews/senat…
thehill.com/homenews/senat…
In addition to showing contempt for whistleblowers & sources, Rand Paul has also shown contempt for journalists from the mainstream & alternative media alike, including fighting to revoke the press credentials of @AbbyMartin who once asked him hard questions about US drone policy
@AbbyMartin The already horrid optics of this meeting are compounded when it is revealed the individual who purportedly brokered the meeting between Julian Assange's lawyer and Rand Paul's office is none other than Roger Stone protege and Alt-Light Palme d'Or, Cassandra Fairbanks.
@AbbyMartin This meeting did not speak truth to power ...it pulled at the pant legs of it.
@AbbyMartin This meeting did not lift up the ideals that at one time in 2010 made Wikileaks great ...it undermined those ideals in a most brutal way.
@AbbyMartin This meeting couldn't possibly help Julian Assange in his fight against charges for publishing information about US war crimes ...instead it conflates them with a partisan spat that is threatening the safety of another whistleblower seeking to hold those in power to account.
