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Notes -
The guardian on Assange and Biden considering to drop the charges.
To my surprise, this is actually a take echoed by Glenn Greenwood:
The facts go like this:
The Guardian/Greenwood narrative would have to go like this:
My narrative would go something like this:
One question I have is whether Assange’s conviction would even be guaranteed if he was tried in the US.
Here’s the indictment. Almost all the charges are ‘espionage’, and a lot of it seems to rely on proving that Assange knew he was damaging the US and essentially acted as Manning’s handler rather than just using Manning as a source.
That seems like a pretty difficult thing to prove, unlike Snowden Assange didn’t flee to an enemy state, and while he is an asshole it doesn’t seem likely he’s working for the Russians or Chinese. Assange can cite a history of years of working as a journalist/editor of wikileaks in the public interest before he was arrested. Is it not possible that Biden is worried about the risk of Assange being acquitted?
Even today, Russia is not an enemy of the US by the strict definition of "has war been declared?". That might seem like semantics, but it has consequences. For example, I think that it would be almost impossible in the US to convict someone of treason for helping Russia, since at the very minimum (and even then it would be hard) I think the US would have to have declared war for the "adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort" part of the US Constitution to apply. But I could be wrong, maybe someone more legally versed can weigh in.
In 2013, when Snowden went to Russia, I don't see how Russia could have been considered an enemy of the US through any other than a very belligerent geopolitical worldview on the part of the US. A geopolitical rival? Sure. But not a full-blown enemy. Those were still the days of close economic ties and small, limited wars like the ones in Serbia and Georgia.
Convicting Assange of treason in the US should be absolutely impossible, because he's not an American citizen or even permanent resident, and never has been. He owes the US no duty of loyalty. That doesn't mean it actually is impossible of course, but 18 USC 2381 doesn't disagree on the requirement.
Espionage, on the other hand, can be committed by foreign nationals.
This is the most hilarious legal clause ever. If you're guilty of treason you shall suffer death... or be subject to prison for five years and fined $10,000. What a spread of possible sentences!
Indeed!
This spread dates back to the Civil War, when there were a lot of traitors whom the government would rather not put to death. In the event, most of them weren't even charged, but Congress wanted to have that option available.
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"Not less than" is doing a lot of work, or at least more than you appear to be giving it credit for. But yes, it is quite a spread.
I also find the phrase "suffer death" amusing, especially in light of @self_made_human 's transhumanist rants on that topic.
That phrasing has a long tradition in Anglo law, see e.g. the Royal Navy's articles of war from 1749:
This or very similar phrasing appears in many of the articles.
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