Julian Assange has been charged, prosecutors reveal in inadvertent court filing

[Julian Englis]

Source: Washington Post

November 15 at 11:19 PM

WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange has been charged under seal, prosecutors inadvertently revealed in a recently unsealed court filing — a development that could significantly advance the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and have major implications for those who publish government secrets.

The disclosure came in a filing in a case unrelated to Assange. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kellen S. Dwyer, urging a judge to keep the matter sealed, wrote "due to the sophistication of the defendant and the publicity surrounding the case, no other procedure is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged." Later, Dwyer wrote the charges would "need to remain sealed until Assange is arrested."

Dwyer is also assigned to the WikiLeaks case. People familiar with the matter said what Dwyer was disclosing was true, but unintentional.

Joshua Stueve, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Virginia said, “The court filing was made in error. That was not the intended name for this filing.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/julian-assange-has-been-charged-prosecutors-reveal-in-inadvertent-court-filing/2018/11/15/9902e6ba-98bd-48df-b447-3e2a4638f05a_story.html

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Well, there appears to be some collusion

[MelissaB]

1. K&R!

[TomSlick]

2. Inadvertent? Ain't buying it.

This would have been caught if "inadvertent." The question is why did the Mueller team want this released.

[Julian Englis]

3. To allow to have a pleasant Thanksgiving....

We can just smile at our crazy RWNJ relatives while they sputter.

[TomSlick]

5. I doubt that was Mueller's plan but I like it.

Brother-in-law doesn't know it yet but Thanksgiving dinner will be fun. I do so wish my brother was coming. I'd love to hear him say "but her e-mails."

Thanks.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

9. Oh, if only one could bake up some rolls that looked like emails.

Then, you could serve them buttered emails.........

[better]

12. You win the meme inspiration award for the day!

Had to go with this because it's comically likely that what they're screaming about is that she deleted her spam folder or some shit.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

21. LOL, and you win meme graphic for the day!

After her Congressional testimony, Repugs would call Hillary a grilled spammer!

But hey, that stuff is officially called filet mignon in Kentucky!......

[Calista241]

7. He's not assigned to the Special Counsel's team.

He works for the Eastern District of Virginia.

[pnwmom]

15. Mueller passed some things off to different US attorneys,

including SDNY and the Eastern District of Virginia.

[joshcryer]

14. Paralegals are the ones who write these things.

They will make mistakes from time to time. If this paralegal copy-pasted a paragraph from Assange's indictment, it's possible they were distracted and forgot to put that other guys name in there.

Legalese is one of the most copy-pasted and recreated form of medium ever.

Believe it or not lawyers don't often read over the very cases they sign their names on.

[TomSlick]

22. Well, I don't file anything in any court unless I have read it several times.

If it's something important, I have another lawyer read it.

Then again, "stuff" happens. Human error does seem the more simple error - Occam's razor and all.

[MelissaB]

4. BURIED LEDE AUGUST 22, 2018 FILING the case in question involves child sex trafficking, National

BURIED LEDE AUGUST 22, 2018 FILING the case in question involves child sex trafficking, National Security Issues,

Link to tweet

[pnwmom]

6. And they're increasingly optimistic they'll be able to prosecute him in the US.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-is-optimistic-it-will-prosecute-assange-1542323142

The Justice Department is preparing to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and is increasingly optimistic it will be able to get him into a U.S. courtroom, according to people in Washington familiar with the matter.

Over the past year, U.S. prosecutors have discussed several types of charges they could potentially bring against Mr. Assange, the people said. Mr. Assange has lived in the Ecuadorean embassy in London since receiving political asylum from the South American country in 2012.

The people familiar with the case wouldn’t describe whether discussions were under way with the U.K. or Ecuador about Mr. Assange, but said they were encouraged by recent developments.

Ecuador’s relationship with Mr. Assange has deteriorated sharply since last year’s election of President Lenin Moreno, who has described him as a “stone in our shoe” and said his continued presence at the embassy is unsustainable.

SNIP

[cstanleytech]

8. Inadvertent or deliberate tip off so he would not leave the embassy?

After all if he is arrested there is no telling who in the current administration he might implicate in something criminal.

[joshcryer]

10. WikiLeaks was openly complicit in the DNC email scandal.

It was so obvious at the time it's a joke.

[More_Cowbell]

11. It's hard for me to believe that it was inadvertent

Trump's lawyers, yes. Mueller's lawyers, no.

[joshcryer]

13. It was likely a paralegal doing a copy-paste job.

Using known language from Assange's indictment.

[pnwmom]

16. I thought that. But it seems odd that the name ASSANGE was

missed not just once, but twice.

When I worked at a law office, the paralegals would sit in pairs and proof-read important documents together, one reading out loud -- backwards, starting from the last word -- and the other reading silently. They'd have never missed this.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. That's what's suggested in The Guardian

It argued that “due to the sophistication of the defendant and the publicity surrounding the case, no other procedure is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged”.

It later said: “The complaint, supporting affidavit and arrest warrant, as well as this motion and the proposed order, would need to remain sealed until Assange is arrested in connection with the charges in the criminal complaint and can therefore no longer evade or avoid arrest and extradition in this matter.”

Legal analysts said the error was likely to have been caused by prosecutors copying and pasting from sealed documents outlining charges against Assange. Prosecutors are known to copy text from past court filings to make similar arguments in new cases, typically changing names and other relevant details accordingly.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/nov/16/julian-assange-charged-in-secret-mistake-on-us-court-filing-suggests

It appears to only refer to him by surname, which you wouldn't expect in a legal document unless he was meant to have been introduced earlier.

[joshcryer]

20. It could be that they were working on Assange's case at the same time.

People are saying that Assange's indictments would stem from the earlier Cablegate fiasco, but that's unlikely, as Obama said he wouldn't go after him for that, and Manning was the only one who could roll on Assange in any event (she would've been the only person who could be a witness against him in that case).

This is almost certainly with regards to Assange's direct collusion with Russia and the DNC email hack.

So if it was a recent indictment or language with recent stuff, it's very possible the paralegals got two different indictments mixed up.

[muriel_volestrangler]

18. It's not Mueller's team. It's a US attorney on a case that involves national security

in some way. And Assange would have been under investigation long before Mueller was appointed.

[duforsure]

19. Before long

We'll hear he's been flipped and talking.