Newly Published Secret Grand Jury Orders & Other Docs shed light on US Investigation of WikiLeaks

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http://www.alexaobrien.com/secondsight/wikileaks/grand_jury/newly_published_secret_grand_jury_orders_and_related_material_shed_light_on_the_continuing_us_investigation_of_wikileaks_now_entering_its_fifth_year.html

Newly published secret grand jury orders & other docs shed light on US investigation of WikiLeaks now entering 5th yr

By Alexa O'Brien on February 17, 2014 10:51 AM |

Newly published documents, including sealed court orders from the secret Department of Justice grand jury investigating WikiLeaks, shed light on the manner and scope of the criminal and intelligence probes into Julian Assange and civilians associated with the online publisher of censored material.

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I am publishing for the first time, two court orders that detail the U.S. Department of Justice's surveillance of a Jacob Appelbaum, a WikiLeaks associate, security expert and journalist, who has recently collaborated on articles in Der Spiegel detailing NSA surveillance.

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Recently released emails also reveal that the secret Sonic order for Appelbaum's information was part of a small portion of sealed grand jury materials, which were turned over to Manning's defense at her trial.

Other recently released emails reveal that the three and a half year old Department of Justice grand jury probe was already empaneled on September 23, 2010, two months before the Attorney General publicly acknowledged an ongoing U.S. criminal investigation of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.
The Department of Justice has also characterized the WikiLeaks criminal probe as a national security investigation. Evidence may also indicate that the case has been categorized as terrorism related. If that is so, it raises questions about the methods (beyond traditional criminal law enforcement) that the Obama administration is employing against the online publisher, its employees, associates, and supporters.

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Typically, the Department of Justice simply indicts, keeps the indictment sealed, issues a warrant, and then sits and waits. It is a violation of federal law for an official to disclose the instance of a sealed indictment before an accused is in the custody of law enforcement.

Once an indictment is unsealed or an investigation is concluded, all the secret orders and search warrants related to the case are simultaneously unsealed. All the secret orders and search warrants related to the WikiLeaks investigation that are publicly known, including those published here, remain under seal.
In the Assange case, however, there are public relations concerns, says Stanley Cohen, U.S. defense attorney on numerous high profile terrorism and cyber-crime cases. "The Department of Justice could also list a target as an un-indicted co-conspirator and still get the benefit of him or her fitting within the history and evidence chain presented to the grand jury," says Cohen. An unindicted co-conspirator can later be charged whether on his or her own, or by a superseding indictment along with those previously charged, Cohen added.

In the end, however, Assange (or any other civilian) could be extradited by criminal complaint or by indictment.

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