{"id":1607499,"date":"2022-08-15T19:32:10","date_gmt":"2022-08-15T23:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1607499"},"modified":"2022-08-15T19:32:30","modified_gmt":"2022-08-15T23:32:30","slug":"journalists-and-lawyers-who-met-with-julian-assange-sue-cia-mike-pompeo-over-alleged-spying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/journalists-and-lawyers-who-met-with-julian-assange-sue-cia-mike-pompeo-over-alleged-spying\/","title":{"rendered":"Journalists And Lawyers Who Met With Julian Assange Sue CIA, Mike Pompeo Over Alleged Spying"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fjournalists-and-lawyers-who-met-with-julian-assange-sue-cia-mike-pompeo-over-alleged-spying%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1607499&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and its former director <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/mike-pompeo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mike Pompeo<\/a> were slapped with a lawsuit Monday from a group of journalists and lawyers over allegations that the government agency spied on them and hundreds of others while meeting with Wikileaks founder <a href=\"https:\/\/dailywire.com\/news\/julian-assanges-wife-says-hell-kill-himself-after-brits-approve-extradition-to-america\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Julian Assange<\/a> at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit alleges that the CIA under Pompeo violated the Fourth Amendment rights of journalists Charles Glass and John Goetz and attorneys Margaret Kunstler and Deborah Hrbek, who have represented Assange.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe United States Constitution shields American citizens from U.S. government overreach even when the activities take place in a foreign embassy in a foreign country,\u201d Richard Roth, the leading lawyer representing the group, told Daily Wire in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The filings allege authorities made each visitor surrender any electronic device such as smartphones or laptops during their interactions with Assange, who is currently fighting extradition to the U.S., where he faces 175 years in prison for publishing classified information. The Wikileaks founder had lived in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London under political asylum since 2012 until authorities arrested him seven years later.<\/p>\n<p>However, Roth said the journalists and lawyers who met with Assange had their conversations recorded and data from their electronic devices copied by Undercover Global SL, a private security contractor, and passed along to the CIA under the direction of Pompeo.<\/p>\n<p>Plaintiffs in the lawsuit have also filed the case again Undercover Global and its Chief Executive David Morales Guillen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is somewhat startling that in light of the Fourth Amendment protection we have in the Constitution, the federal government would actually go ahead and take this confidential information,\u201d Roth told reporters during a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=DrpR4h1Toa4\">press conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Monday\u2019s lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and the plaintiff\u2019s are only asking for<br \/>injunctive relief and not money damages.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. law prohibits the CIA from collecting intelligence on citizens. However, Reuters <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/cia-sued-over-alleged-spying-lawyers-journalists-who-met-assange-2022-08-15\/\">reports<\/a> that lawmakers have alleged that the alphabet agency keeps clandestine of Americans\u2019 communications data.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThink of what we store in our phones and our computers \u2014 birthdays, bank information, dates of birth \u2014 all of this was recorded, and then given over to the Central Intelligence Agency,\u201d Robert Boyle, a New York Civil Rights and constitutional law attorney, told reporters during the press conference. \u201cSo the violations of the privacy rights here were particularly egregious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Boyle argues that the alleged violations have also \u201ctainted, if not destroyed,\u201d a fair trial for Assange.<\/p>\n<p>Margaret Kunstler, a criminal and civil rights attorney and a plaintiff in the case, called the act by the government agency \u201cterrible,\u201d adding she can\u2019t think of anything worse than the opposition listening in on their plans and conversations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGross misconduct is exactly what has happened here,\u201d Kunstler said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t understand how the CIA \u2014 I guess through the insanity of Pompeo \u2014 could think that they could do this is so outrageous that it\u2019s beyond my comprehension.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kunstler visited Assange at the Embassy between January 2017 and March 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Deborah Harbeck, an attorney who has visited Mr. Assange, echoed her fellow plaintiff, saying the violation of her constitutional rights is an outrage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have the right to assume that the U.S. government is not listening to my private and privileged conversations with my clients,\u201d Harbeck told reporters, adding that information about other clients in cases she may have on her phone or laptop is secure from illegal government intrusion.<\/p>\n<p>Harbeck reportedly visited Assange during the relevant period.<\/p>\n<p>John Goetz, the editor of investigations at German public broadcaster NDR, told reporters he worked with Assange between 2011 and 2017. He said he met with the political asylee for editorial discussion about stories at the Embassy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI find that quite disturbing that what was essentially a private editorial situation was conceivably or possibly are likely being listened to,\u201d Goetz said. \u201cI thought that we were protected, especially as American citizens, by the Fourth Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nathan Fuller, director of Assange\u2019s defense committee, argued that the journalists tried to publish crucial content for the public interest and its right to know what lengths the government would reach to silence reporters who reveal information \u201cembarrassing to the regime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis should worry anybody who values investigative journalists and journalism and should be aware of the unprecedented threat that this prosecution poses to it,\u201d Fuller told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>According to Reuters, Pompeo and Undercover Global S.L. could not immediately be reached for comment.<\/p>\n<p>The filings allege that Pompeo has said in the past he would target whistleblowers who exposed U.S. government secrets and argued that \u201cthe one thing [current] whistleblowers don\u2019t need is a publisher\u201d due to the availability of the Internet. The former CIA director\u00a0allegedly called WikiLeaks \u201ca non-state hostile intelligence service\u201d while referring to Assange as a \u201cnarcissist,\u201d \u201cfraud,\u201d and a \u201ccoward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Assange founded Wikileaks in 2006 and has since published over 10 million documents exposing war crimes, human rights violations, corruption, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and its former director Mike Pompeo were slapped with a lawsuit Monday from a group of journalists and lawyers over allegations that the government agency spied on them and hundreds of others while meeting with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. The lawsuit alleges that &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1607551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1607499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1607499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1607499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1607499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1607551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1607499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1607499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1607499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}