CN Live! speaks to Australian journalist Mary Kostakidis and attorney Marjorie Cohn about Julian Assange’s appearance before the Council of Europe today. Watch the replay.
What Assange Said
After nearly four months of freedom, Julian Assange has finally spoken in public. Rather than choose a high-profile media interview, as some had speculated he would, Assange traveled from Australia, where he has been recuperating after five years in a British maximum security prison on remand for publishing classified information, to Strasbourg, France earlier today to testify before the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which had supported Assange throughout his ordeal, and deemed him a political prisoner.
In a one-hour and a half appearance, Assange touched on many aspects of his legal case, such as his plea deal, WikiLeaks’ work, the C.I.A.’s retribution, the Espionage Act, the First Amendment, political asylum, his High Court case in London, British judges’ willingness to align themselves with U.S. interests, and mistakes he’s made.
Here to analyze what Assange said today are journalist Mary Kostakidis, well known in Australia as a nightly news presenter, who has also known Assange for many years; and attorney Marjorie Cohn, a former president of the U.S. National Lawyers Guild, who has written extensively about the Assange case for many years.
Hosts: Elizabeth Vos and Joe Lauria. Producer: Cathy Vogan.
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Joe Lauria’s anecdote about West Point was fascinating. “We lied, we cheated, we stole”. Words that have to be Pompeo’s epitaph.