Thread by @kgosztola

The tenth day of proceedings in the trial portion of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's extradition hearing will begin shortly.

I'll have live updates today and throughout third week of #AssangeTrial.

It is Assange legal team's position that facts in the case have been presented in a "misleading way" by prosecution to help make it seem like Assange committed "extraditable offense."

Day 10 will feature Jakob Augstein, a journalist who worked for Der Freitag, and Professor Christian Grothoff, a computer science professor, who can show court US prosecution is misrepresenting facts related to publication of unredacted cable cache on the internet #Assange

Housekeeping note: All my written reports from each day of #AssangeTrial over past two weeks can be found at this link: dissenter.substack.com

And if you want to receive emailed written report after each day of proceedings, go to dissenter.substack.com/subscribe

As far as what is at stake for press freedom, this remains one of most unnerving exchanges I heard last week from prosecutor representing US government. #Assange

https://twitter.com/kgosztola/status/1306943661180153861?s=20

Christian Grothoff, computer science professor in Switzerland, takes the virtual witness stand. #Assange

Summers: Did you discover shared access to cable database with someone called David Leigh?

Grothoff mentions the book David Leigh (and Luke Harding) wrote on WikiLeaks. Leigh wrote he received what he wrote in his book. He wrote he received it "from the website." #Assange

Grothoff testifies on the distributed denial of service attack that WikiLeaks sustained after 29 November 2010, when US diplomatic cables were first published. It fueled mirroring of content from WL website #Assange

Summers: If one had followed the instructions on the WikiLeaks website and mirrored the site, would you have copied unredacted classified cables in that process?

Grothoff: no #Assange

The US government accessed the unredacted cache of over 250,000 cables through The Pirate Bay on September 1, according to report provided to Grothoff by the Assange legal team.

Grothoff says WikiLeaks first made unredacted cache of cables available around Sept 2, 2011, and by that time the material was already available and "virtually impossible to stop." #Assange

As done with nearly every witness, prosecution is trying to make it seem Grothoff is inappropriately biased. Primarily, they're focusing on extent of materials Grothoff depended on for research that came from defense attorneys #Assange

Smith asked if anything would show Grothoff was "not impartial."

Grothoff couldn't recall. Added, "We know that Mr. Assange did publish info about war crimes being committed by governments, which makes him a sympathetic character."

Prosecutor confronted Grothoff with a signature he added to a 2017 open letter to President Donald Trump to end grand jury investigation into WikiLeaks. Grothoff insisted he still conducted a fair analysis of what happened with unredacted cable cache. #Assange

Joel Smith, prosecutor, told Grothoff, "You're biased. You're partial." And Grothoff replied, "You are confusing actions WikiLeaks made to obscure the documents with them publishing it." #Assange

Grothoff additionally told prosecutor government did not properly do their "homework identifying who first published those cables." And it was unfair to accuse Assange of publishing unredacted classified cables.

Grothoff said effectively by encouraging mirrors of WikiLeaks website they were effectively "building a haystack" in which it would be difficult to find few mirror sites with the "needle" or encrypted file containing unredacted cables. #Assange

Though when WikiLeaks first started encouraging mirror sites, especially after DDOS attack, David Leigh and Luke Harding had yet to publish their book with the passphrase #Assange

Smith, the prosecutor, ascribed importance to WikiLeaks releasing cables as searchable that Grothoff didn't understand, and when Grothoff said as much, Smith got prickly. #Assange

It is somewhat harder to follow because we have cables that were published by media partners that were published on internet with information the US views as "sensitive" still in the documents. But that doesn't mean in 2011 came from the cache at issue #Assange

In keeping track of points where prosecution criminalizes journalism, Grothoff suggested media partners would have experts on what should be made public and what should be withheld in cables. Smith bristled with contempt, "Who told you they were experts?" #Assange

So we're clear, prosecutor made the court go into recess so witness—a defense witness—could find a link to a tweet for them that somehow they did not know how to locate for their cross-examination, which would've been referenced in defense bundle provided ahead of today #Assange

I don't know why we needed to waste 15 minutes for prosecutor to prove Grothoff made an error and forgot to take note of time zone differences. But that's what just happened. Moving on. #Assange

The prosecution highlighted tweets on September 1 and 2 that showed WikiLeaks attracting attention in 2011 after posting unredacted cables. Prosecution argument seems to be they "made searchable" and increased likelihood of harm through these acts. #Assange

We are on break for a short time as Assange gives his legal team some instruction. Again, any time he wants to speak with his attorneys we must stop court because he is in the glass box at the back of the courtroom.

Re: unredacted cable cache

I think what prosecutors believe they showed is the defense pointed to Der Freitag, a post by Nigel Parry, Cryptome, and various mirror sites. Prosecution wants court to believe there wasn't much time before WikiLeaks went ahead with release. #Assange

As far as the law goes, I don't really know if it makes a difference how much time elapsed if it is clear WikiLeaks wasn't the first to publish the unredacted cable cache. #Assange

We hear from defense most of this week is going to be spent on medical evidence from witnesses #Assange

From defense re-examination, Grothoff said some of the mirrors of WikiLeaks website were using different type of software than what WL prescribed #Assange

This was the first time during proceedings that we saw Baraitser's concern that all witnesses may not be finished by end of fourth week impact defense's ability to question witnesses. She stopped Summers several times over what she maintained wasn't in dispute. #Assange

Summers wanted to go through chronology from Aug 31 to Sept 2 again because Smith seemed to suggest WikiLeaks released an editorial that would lead people to unredacted cache of cables. #Assange

After much back and forth, and judge and prosecutor essentially clarifying they didn't believe editorial helped anyone find password for unredacted cables, Summers accepted - although he didn't have much choice - that he couldn't question Grothoff further on this. #Assange

Summers mentioned the open letter Grothoff apparently signed urging Trump to drop investigation into WikiLeaks. It was also signed by members of German parliament, former CIA officers, former US military members, judges, human rights activists, etc, from throughout world #Assange

Defense regrettably informed the judge that journalist Jakob Augstein had to catch a flight and is not available for the afternoon. We did not get to him. #Assange

Journalist Andy Worthington, who worked extensively on Gitmo Files, could be questioned in afternoon, but it may not be necessary because defense and prosecution believe they can agree on statement to be submitted to the court #Assange

If we're going to have open discussion about who is unnecessarily prolonging #AssangeTrial, I enter into evidence the 6.5-7 hours prosecution spent cross-examining two US attorneys called as experts: Eric Lewis and Carey Shenkman. #Assange

Neither Lewis nor Shenkman had any evidence to share from their personal involvement with Assange and yet somehow we were subject to several hours of questions from prosecutors. It was beyond reasonable to take that much time. #Assange

James Lewis objects to calling journalist Andy Worthington this afternoon, even though he is available to take witness stand. #Assange

Lewis, prosecutor, suggested Worthington's evidence might be submitted as a statement like El Masri, but Assange wants to call him.

Judge Baraitser asked if defense wanted her to make a finding that Gitmo detainees were subject to torture. Summers said yes, that they were "found to have been." Baraitser plainly stated she would not issue such a finding on any detainees #Assange

The judge was persuaded that Worthington should be permitted to still testify but upset that defense didn't notify prosecutors until this morning they may need to cross-exam today. However, they didn't know until last night that Worthington was available. #Assange

Judge Baraitser said she feels "this is happening in piecemeal basis" — the scheduling of witnesses.

It was all thrown off-kilter by the COVID scare on Day 4. Defense has dealt with witnesses who had conflicts with rescheduling for last week or so. #Assange

The judge is forcing defense and prosecution to come together and go through each remaining witness. Figure out whose testimony can be agreed upon for statements and who can't, and set out a calendar for next week so we don't do this every day. #Assange

There isn't any confusion over next 3-4 days. Who the defense has scheduled are the medical professionals that will testify about Assange's health.

We are entering a statement into record from Cassandra Fairbanks, a journalist and activist who supports Assange. She writes for conservative outlet supportive of Trump.

According to defense, what Arthur Schwartz, an associate of Richard Grenell of former Acting Director of US National Intelligence, told her should be considered true as reflection of what would happen to Assange being removed from embassy, etc.

Fairbanks said Schwartz told her Assange would be charged with Manning documents. It wouldn't be Vault 7 or anything to do with DNC.

According to Fairbanks, she was threatened, especially after calling attention to Grenell's involvement in Assange's arrest when his name was floated as possible candidate for Trump's national security adviser in September 2019 after John Bolton was fired. #Assange

One other important detail from the statement entered by Fairbanks was that she met with Assange in the Ecuador embassy, informed him of what she learned from Schwartz, and it later became evident she was under surveillance. That conversation became known to Trump officials.

We are adjourned, and I will have a live video report on what developed today in #AssangeTrial at this link:

Trump Jr. fixer: everyone in WikiLeaks deserve the death penalty shadowproof.com/2020/09/21/tru… #AssangeTrial