Assange won't hand over docs to House Judiciary
By KYLE CHENEY 03/21/2019 10:23 AM EDT
Updated 03/21/2019 01:45 PM EDT
... Assange has long parried criticism that he acted on behalf of Russia when he posted hacked Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee emails in 2016 by suggesting his actions were no different than journalists accepting and publishing confidential documents.
But the U.S. intelligence community has assessed that WikiLeaks was an active participant in the effort to obtain and post Democratic emails, partnering with Russian propaganda outlets and acting as a tool of the Russian government. Assange has denied such claims.
Assange, who has lived as a fugitive in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for years, was unlikely to cooperate with congressional investigators. He’s the latest of 81 people and entities to decline a Judiciary Committee request for documents.
So far, the committee has received upward of 25 responses to its document requests. About a dozen witnesses have publicly confirmed that they had given or intended to provide documents — including former Trump aide Hope Hicks, National Enquirer parent company American Media, Trump confidant Thomas Barrack, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and the lobbying firm of former national security adviser Michael Flynn ...
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/21/julian-assange-documents-house-judiciary-probe-1230820