Trump says he only needs one more indictment to get elected. He currently has three indictments, though, so I would think he’d need three more due to Q drop 3934…
And then there’s this interesting article about the case against Assange, and how, due to Trump’s indictment, the US can’t drop the charges against JA because they’d have to drop the case against Trump, too.
The vanishing options for Julian Assange.
Any chance that the United States would drop the extradition request has most likely been further diminished by the separate charges that have now been brought against Trump. The Department of Justice, following a joint investigation with the FBI, has laid 37 charges against Trump relating to documents and materials that were seized at his Florida residence. The charges include unauthorised retention of classified documents and conspiracy to obstruct justice after he left the White House in 2021, and 31 charges under the Espionage Act.
Somewhat remarkably, both Assange and Trump are now the most prominent Espionage Act cases in the United States. (emphasis mine.) Assange for gaining access to classified US national security documents and publishing some of that material on WikiLeaks, and Trump for retaining national security documents after he left the White House. Given the developments in the Trump case, it is highly unlikely and politically would be very damaging for the Biden administration if a decision was made to discontinue its pursuit of Julian Assange, while at the same time continuing its pursuit of Donald Trump.
The indictments are clearly laying groundwork for big developments moving forward, but I’m curious why Trump is suggesting four indictments seals the deal. Unless 3934 doesn’t apply to him.
IANAL but US v Trump/Nauta has charges under 793e on page 28 here:
https://www.justice.gov/storage/US_v_Trump-Nauta_23-80101.pdf
Among a pile of other things. I guess the idea is to just throw everything out there and let the other side gets some wins by having parts of it tossed out.
Assange's indictment has 793e referenced on page 5 here:
https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1153486/download
So by my reading the cases at least seem partially relatable to US v NYT through the charges filed under 793e.
Here is 793e for reference:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/793
And totally agree w/Trump as POTUS being an obvious exception that'll be willfully ignored till we hit the Supreme Court in all likelihood.
Yes, but Assange has now been charged with other crimes in a superseding indictment
Criminal No. l:18-cr-111 (CMH) Count 1: 18 U.S.C. § 793(g) Conspiracy To Obtain and Disclose National Defense Information
Count 2: 18 U.S.C. § 371 Conspiracy to Commit Computer Intrusions
Counts 3, 4: 18: 18 U.S.C §§ 793(b) Obtaining National Defense Infmmation
Counts 5-8: 18 U.S.C. §§ 793(c) Obtaining National Defense Information
Counts 9-11: 18 U.S.C. §§ 793(d) and Disclosure Of National Defense Information
Counts 12-14: 18 U.S.C. §§ 793(e) and Disclosure Of National Defense Information
Counts 15-17: 18 U.S.C. § 793(e) Disclosure Of National Defense Information