Julian Assange looks for deal to end ‘diplomatic isolation’

Julian Assange walked into the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on June 19, 2012 to claim political asylum. He has been there ever since – a total of 2,230 days – rarely seeing daylight. But multiple sources say his situation is now untenable and he may soon leave, whether he wants to or not.

The question is: what will happen to Assange as and when he does walk out of his bolt-hole around the corner from Harrods?

The recent indictments issued by US Special Counsel Robert Mueller imply that Assange and WikiLeaks were a conduit for Russian intelligence in distributing hacked Democratic Party emails in 2016.

According to the indictment document, “The conspirators (…) discussed the release of the stolen documents and the timing of those releases with Organisation 1 to heighten their impact.”

Julian Assange speaks to the media from the balcony of the Embassy Of Ecuador, where he has been living since June 19, 2012.

CNN has established that Organization 1 is WikiLeaks, which published the emails in July 2016.

Assange has always maintained that he did not receive them from the Russian government. He told Fox News in January 2017: “Our source is not the Russian government, and it is not a state party.”

A member of Assange’s legal team, Jennifer Robinson, told CNN this week: “WikiLeaks has made very clear they were not engaged in any way with the Russian state with respect to that publication. There is no connection between WikiLeaks and any of those who have been indicted.”

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 05: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy where he continues to seek asylum following an extradition request from Sweden in 2012, on February 5, 2016 in London, England. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has insisted that Mr Assange's detention should be brought to an end. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

Related article Sources: US prepares charges to seek arrest of WikiLeaks' Julian Assange

His lawyers argue that all Assange did was publish the hacked emails, as did other media, after being in contact with a hacker called Guccifer 2.0. The Special Counsel alleges that Guccifer 2.0 was a cover for Russian intelligence, saying in the indictment that on July 14th [2016], Guccifer 2.0 sent WikiLeaks an encrypted attachment that contained “instructions on how to access an online archive of stolen DNC documents.”

Whether a sealed indictment awaits Assange in relation to the Russian hacking investigation is unknown. But according to US officials, charges have been drawn up relating to previous WikiLeaks disclosures of classified US documents.

Assange would face arrest if/when he leaves the embassy because he skipped bail in 2012 – when Swedish authorities were seeking his extradition to face accusations of rape. Last year Sweden suspended the investigation, but Assange’s lawyers fear his arrest would be swiftly followed by a US extradition request. Assange maintains his innocence.

“For us protecting him from US extradition is absolutely paramount, and the most important and fundamental principle that must be respected,” Robinson told CNN this week.

“There should never be a situation where a publisher is sent to the US to face prosecution for that activity, so we will, if forced, fight his extradition in the British Courts.”

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The Ecuadorean government wants the case resolved. Ecuador’s recently elected president, Lenín Moreno said in Madrid Friday that his government was in dialogue with the UK and wanted a solution that guaranteed Assange’s life would not be in danger. He described Assange’s long confinement as “against human rights.”

Downing Street confirmed discussions were “ongoing.”

Moreno has previously described Assange as an “inherited problem” (his predecessor Rafael Correa granted Assange asylum.) But in a statement last week, the Ecuadorean Foreign Ministry said it saw no immediate or long-term solution to the situation.

Julian Assange gestures from a police vehicle on his arrival at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on April 11, 2019. Assange, founder of the website WikiLeaks, has been a key figure in major leaks of classified government documents, cables and videos.

Assange holds a copy of The Guardian newspaper in London on July 26, 2010, a day after WikiLeaks posted more than 90,000 classified documents related to the Afghanistan War.

Assange attends a seminar at the Swedish Trade Union Confederation in Stockholm on August 14, 2010. Six days later, Swedish prosecutors issued a warrant for his arrest based on allegations of sexual assault from two women. Assange has always denied wrongdoing.

Assange, in London, displays a page from WikiLeaks on October 23, 2010. The day before, WikiLeaks released approximately 400,000 classified military documents from the Iraq War.

Assange and his bodyguards are seen after a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, in November 2010. It was the month WikiLeaks began releasing diplomatic cables from US embassies.

Assange sits behind the tinted window of a police vehicle in London on December 14, 2010. Assange had turned himself in to London authorities on December 7 and was released on bail and put on house arrest on December 16. In February 2011, a judge ruled in support of Assange's extradition to Sweden. Assange's lawyers filed an appeal.

In October 2011, a month after WikiLeaks released more than 250,000 US diplomatic cables, Assange speaks to demonstrators from the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

Assange leaves the High Court in London in December 2011. He was taking his extradition case to the British Supreme Court.

Assange leaves the Supreme Court in February 2012. In May of that year, the court denied his appeal against extradition.

Assange addresses the media and his supporters from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on August 19, 2012. A few days earlier, Ecuador announced that it had granted asylum to Assange. In his public address, Assange demanded that the United States drop its "witch hunt" against WikiLeaks.

Assange speaks from a window of the Ecuadorian Embassy in December 2012.

Assange addresses the Oxford Union Society from the Ecuadorian Embassy in January 2013.

Assange appears with Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino on the balcony of the embassy in June 2013.

Assange speaks during a panel discussion at the South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, in March 2014.

Assange attends a news conference inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in August 2014.

Assange is seen on a video screen in March 2015, during an event on the sideline of a United Nations Human Rights Council session.

Assange, on the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy, holds up a United Nations report in February 2016. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said that Assange was being arbitrarily detained by the governments of Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Assange speaks to the media in May 2017, after Swedish prosecutors had dropped their investigation of rape allegations against Assange. But Assange acknowledged he was unlikely to walk out of the embassy any time soon. "The UK has said it will arrest me regardless," he said. "The US CIA Director (Mike) Pompeo and the US attorney general have said that I and other WikiLeaks staff have no ... First Amendment rights, that my arrest and the arrest (of) my other staff is a priority. That is not acceptable."

Assange was seen for the first time in months during a hearing via teleconference in Quito, Ecuador, in October 2018. The hearing was then postponed due to translation difficulties.

A van displays images of Assange and Chelsea Manning, the former Army intelligence analyst who supplied thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks, outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on Friday, April 5. A senior Ecuadorian official said no decision has been made to expel Assange from the embassy. According to WikiLeaks tweets, sources had told the organization that Assange could be kicked out of the embassy within "hours to days."

A screen grab from video footage shows the dramatic moment when Assange was hauled out of the Ecuadorian Embassy by police on April 11, 2019. Assange was arrested for "failing to surrender to the court" over a warrant issued in 2012. Officers made the initial move to detain Arrange after Ecuador withdrew his asylum and invited authorities into the embassy, citing the Australian's bad behavior.

Assange gestures from the window of a prison van as he is driven into Southwark Crown Court in London on May 1, 2019, before being sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for breaching his bail conditions in 2012.

A sketch depicts Assange appearing at the Old Bailey courthouse in London for a ruling in his extradition case on Monday, January 4. A judge rejected a US request to extradite Assange, saying that such a move would be "oppressive" by reason of his mental health.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

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Complicating the situation is the fact that Assange was granted Ecuadorean citizenship last December.

Related: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange granted Ecuadorian citizenship

Assange’s situation is also a dilemma for the British government, aware that he inspires both passionate support and visceral animosity.

Foreign Office Minister Alan Duncan told the House of Commons last month: “We would like the assurance that if he were to step out of the embassy he will be treated humanely and properly. The first priority would be to look after his health, which we think is deteriorating.”

On that issue, Assange’s lawyers and Ecuadorean officials agree. Robinson says “the situation is untenable. His health is being irreparably damaged…This case cannot go on much longer.”

Assange’s isolation deepened in March. His access to the internet and phone was cut off – in part because Ecuadorean officials said he had violated an agreement not to comment about the internal affairs of other countries. Assange has been, for example, a vocal supporter of the Catalan independence campaign in Spain.

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 05: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy where he continues to seek asylum following an extradition request from Sweden in 2012, on February 5, 2016 in London, England. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has insisted that Mr Assange's detention should be brought to an end. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

Related article Ecuador suspends Julian Assange's internet access at London embassy

The former consul at the embassy, Fidel Narvaez, says he saw Assange two weeks ago. “He is a very strong man but remember he lives in a small flat, without natural light, just with artificial light,” Narvaez told CNN.

Narvaez doesn’t believe Assange is about to give up. “He is made for a big fight and I think he faces difficult and adverse situations with strength.”

He also maintains that Assange has the right to live in Ecuador, if the British government allows him to leave the country.

On their own admission, Assange’s legal team are in the dark about any negotiations that might be going on about Assange’s future.

The irony is that Assange fears extradition to a country whose President proclaimed himself a big fan of WikiLeaks when running for office. Donald Trump mentioned WikiLeak’s hacking of Hillary Clinton’s emails more than 100 times in the last month of the 2016 election campaign. At one point he said: “I’ll tell you this Wikileaks stuff is unbelievable. It tells you the inner heart, you gotta read it.”

He even went so far as to say: “I love WikiLeaks.”

Trump’s Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and the US Justice Department appear to think very differently. They believe Julian Assange should be brought in front of a US court. When he was Director of the CIA, Pompeo said: “We can no longer allow Assange and his colleagues the latitude to use free speech values against us.”

Pompeo said that WikiLeaks “walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service.”

Whether Robert Mueller’s team agrees – that’s the tantalizing question.