Excerpt: "Our D.C. lawyers are delivering a letter tomorrow to Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking her to explain why it is that the now six-year-long national security and criminal investigation being run against WikiLeaks, the reason I have political asylum, has not been closed."
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. (photo: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters)
16 August 16
ikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says the Department of Justice (DOJ) set a new standard for its investigations with its probe of Hillary Clinton.
“Our D.C. lawyers are delivering a letter tomorrow to Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking her to explain why it is that the now six-year-long national security and criminal investigation being run against WikiLeaks, the reason I have political asylum, has not been closed,” he said on CNN’s “The Lead” on Monday.
“Because the DOJ, whose actions seem to be setting a new standard by closing the Hillary Clinton case,” Assange added. "The Hillary Clinton case has only gone for one year.
“Hillary Clinton’s case has been dropped, the case against WikiLeaks continues. So why is it that the quote, ‘pending law enforcement proceedings’ against WikiLeaks continue? There’s a problem here.”
Assange compared the DOJ’s investigation of his organization with the agency’s probe of Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee.
“It was closed under the basis that [FBI Director] James Comey said that they couldn’t establish that there was an intent to damage national security,” he said of the DOJ’s probe of Clinton. "In our case, there’s no allegation that we have done anything except publish information for the public.
“The U.S. government had to say under oath in 2013 not a single person has been physically harmed by our publication. You don’t have intent. You don’t have serious harm.”
Assange added Clinton’s campaign is trying to discredit WikiLeaks by focusing on his lack of American citizenship.
“Of course they’re desperate for anything,” he said. "We operate and report on all different countries. We have staff in the United States. That’s what we do for every country.
“Once again, they’re trying to distract from the revelations that caused four, the top four officials, including [former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman] Debbie Wasserman Schultz, to resign.”
WikiLeaks published a trove 20,000 DNC emails in late July covering the period from last January to late May.
Some of the messages showed top DNC officials seemingly planning to undermine Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in his race with Clinton for the party’s presidential nomination.
Assange insisted earlier this month his organization’s publishing of the communications was not intended to undermine Clinton’s campaign.
