US Congress Introduces Resolution 934 to Respect the First Amendment and Stop Extradition of Julian Assange

There is no America without a Free Press. There is no Free Press without a free Julian Assange. – Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The Honest Media Project recently wrote about House Resolution 934 to drop all charges against Julian Assange.

The resolution, introduced by Arizona Representative Paul Gosar, states: "Regular journalistic activities are protected under the First Amendment, and that the United States ought to drop all charges against and attempts to extradite Julian Assange"

This resolution to drop all charges against Assange is supported by a bipartisan group of US lawmakers. It was introduced to the House of Representatives by Gosar and co-sponsored by seven other politicians: Republicans Thomas Massie (KY), Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), Anna Paulina Luna (FL), Eric Burlison (MO), and Jeff Duncan (SC), as well as Democrats Jim McGovern (MA) and Ilhan Omar (MN). The resolution would not only drop charges but reinforce that Assange, as a journalist, is protected by the First Amendment. While many centrist politicians are surely compromised by conflicts of interest and therefore remain silent on this topic, it is notable that the questions of free speech and Assange can unite members of congress from the right and left during this polarized political era.

Background on Julian Assange

Assange is the founder of WikiLeaks, a news outlet that has published thousands of leaked documents exposing multiple crimes of the US Government. He is a political prisoner who was falsely accused under the Espionage Act of colluding with Russia to hack US government systems to illegally obtain official documents.

The truth is that the US government is punishing him for daring to air their dirty laundry. This persecution has happened under the administrations of Obama, Trump and Biden. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is the only serious candidate for President who is calling for all charges to be dropped against Assange and for him to be set free. 

Trump had the chance to pardon Assange and chose not to do it.

Over the past two years, reports have alleged that the former Director of Central Intelligence plotted to assassinate Assange while he was seeking asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, as investigated by Yahoo. The mainstream media did not widely report on this story, although some voices, such as war analyst Patrick Cockburn, in an opinion piece for The Independent, tried to spotlight the issue more. In addition, there is currently a lawsuit in federal court, as explained by Richard Roth who is the lawyer for wikileaks suing the CIA, that alleges that the CIA spied on Assange and every single visitor who came to see him in the Ecuadorian Embassy. The lawsuit is about to enter the discovery phase when evidence of what the CIA is hiding should be revealed.

Nils Melzer, the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, has described Assange’s prosecution by Trump and Biden as a “persecution” in a book he wrote on the subject and has said that “Mr. Assange’s rights have been severely violated for more than a decade.” Like Jonathan Turley, who argues that the Assange case represents “the most important press freedom case in the US in 300 years,” Melzer views the Assange trial as one of the defining human rights cases of our time.

For those unfamiliar with the work of Assange and Wikileaks,  the latter released troves of primary documents that information on torture at Guantanamo Bay, the murder (by American military personnel) of Reuters journalists in Iraq, and a 2006 memorandum from the United States Air Force detailing “Burn Pit Health Hazards.” If American authorities had listened to Assange, rather than treating him as an enemy, countless lives of veterans could have been spared; the WikiLeaks burn pit scoop broke thirteen years before the passage of the PACT Act of 2022, a piece of bipartisan legislation designed to care for the 3.5 million (and growing) veterans potentially harmed by the burn pits.

So this issue is about torture, toxic exposure, and war, but first and foremost it is about free speech.

Matthew C. Armstrong, who just joined the Honest Media Project, has called for President Biden to end all efforts to extradite Julian Assange and drop all charges against him. But Congress must do the same for him to have a chance.

If you want to support this resolution, then you can find your Congressperson using your zip code here: https://www.house.gov/ 

Call and email them asking that they support House Resolution 934, stating that Julian Assange did nothing wrong but practice the right to free speech and free press, and that the US should not extradite or punish him for anything.