WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange protected by first amendment: Judge Napolitano
Judge Andrew Napolitano said WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, will be protected by the first amendment if he is brought to the U.S.
“What Assange did here was not to steal a secret, but to reveal a secret and that act of revelation, in that case numerous acts of revelation, is absolutely protected in the first amendment pursuant to the very now-well known and highly regarded case called the Pentagon Papers Case,” Judge Napolitano told FOX Business’ Kennedy on Thursday.
“The people that are furious at Assange should be furious at two people: Chelsea Manning and Barack Obama,” Judge Napolitano added. “Chelsea Manning is the thief. Prosecuted, tried, convicted, sentenced to a long jail term- and then President Obama commuted the sentence for whatever reason. That’s where those who say American lives were put in danger, that where their anger should be focused, not on a journalist who exposed it.”
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What will happen next for Assange is still uncertain, as he begins to fight extradition to the United States. But Judge Napolitano said that the extradition process to the U.S. may take years, as the United Kingdom faces legal issues of its own.
“Brexit plays a role here, because while Great Britain is in the EU, the final appeal from an order of extradition is not to the highest court in Great Britain, it’s the highest appellate court in Brussels, a decidedly un-American place,” he said. “And that court has final say in whether or not he will be extradited.”