{"id":29123,"date":"2020-09-22T11:17:38","date_gmt":"2020-09-22T15:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=29123"},"modified":"2020-09-22T11:18:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T15:18:00","slug":"was-julian-assange-arrested-on-direct-orders-of-president-trump-for-his-own-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=29123","title":{"rendered":"Was Julian Assange arrested on direct orders of President Trump for his own protection?<\/i><\/b>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump Directed Plot to Arrest Julian!<\/strong><\/h1>\n

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Dear friend,<\/p>\n

Julian\u2019s extradition hearing resumed today with important witness testimony. A witness statement read today described President Trump\u2019s involvement in the plan to evict and arrest Julian. E<\/a>arlier in the day, the court heard expert testimony that devastates the prosecution\u2019s case <\/strong>against Julian dealing with publishing unredacted material.<\/p>\n

It was a busy day outside the courthouse, too. Singer-songwriter M.I.A.<\/strong> appeared at the Old Bailey and spoke to the press on Julian\u2019s behalf<\/strong><\/a>. Two groups made waves on Julian\u2019s behalf: the newly launched Artists for Assange<\/strong><\/a> and Lawyers for Assange<\/strong>, which announced that 167 politicians<\/strong><\/a> (including past and present heads of state) signed on to an open letter calling on the U.K. to end extradition proceedings<\/strong>. And powerful Op-Eds were published by former President of Brazil<\/strong> Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva<\/a> and retired U.S. Rep. Ron Paul<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can read our full report on Monday\u2019s proceedings here<\/a>, but here\u2019s a recap:<\/p>\n

Witness Reveals Trump Directed Plan to Revoke Julian\u2019s Asylum<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A witness statement from conservative journalist Cassandra Fairbanks<\/strong><\/a> was read into the record this afternoon. Fairbanks detailed how she learned that her meeting with Julian in the Ecuadorian embassy was surveilled<\/strong>, and how Trump insiders had negotiated with the Ecuadorian government to arrange his eviction and arrest by British authorities. Fairbanks specifically mentioned Ambassador Richard Grenell<\/strong> and Trump fixer Arthur Schwartz <\/strong>as key players. In a recorded phone conversation<\/strong><\/a> between Fairbanks and Schwartz, Schwartz reveals that Julian was arrested on direct \u201c<\/strong>orders from the president<\/strong><\/a>.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

WikiLeaks Didn\u2019t Release the Cables, and Julian Worked to Keep Them Protected<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Earlier in the day, Prof. Christian Grothoff gave crucial testimony that devastated the prosecution\u2019s argument that WikiLeaks recklessly published unredacted State Department material. Grothoff testified that the unredacted material was initially published by Cryptome<\/strong> after two journalists from <\/strong>The<\/em><\/strong> Guardian<\/em><\/strong> published an encryption password<\/strong><\/a> in their book. Neither Cryptome (which is based in the U.S.) nor the journalists who released the password have been prosecuted<\/a>. Grothoff further undermined the government\u2019s case<\/strong> by pointing out how reluctant Julian was to share access<\/strong><\/a> to the unredacted cables, and how Julian worked to prevent them from being accessed<\/strong><\/a> even after others<\/a> had recklessly released them.<\/p>\n

You can find a full report on today\u2019s hearing here.<\/a><\/div>\n

It was an important day of testimony and calls for Julian\u2019s release continue to echo. We will continue to keep you updated at our live blog<\/a>. You can also find hearing coverage from Courage Foundation\u2019s Director Nathan Fuller<\/a> and real-time updates on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned,<\/p>\n

Team Assange Defense<\/p>\n

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Trump Directed Plot to Arrest Julian!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}