[severine]

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo:

https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1020727843897118723

> Interesting to see Greenwald’s continued toadying for Julian Assange here. 2/ There are several layers of irony here. Before getting to those let me say that I think it would be a big mistake for the US to try to prosecute him, mainly for precedent and 1st am reasons. But also because we have no interest in validating his martyr complex. 3/ As for the ironies, Assange didn’t seem ‘asylum’ over a threat of US prosecution. He was there to be evade prosecution for rape. The bogeyman of us prosecution was always there to provide a veneer of principle to the more mundane aim of not answering rape charges. 4/ Sweden eventually gave up on that case because they couldn’t get access to Assange. So big picture Assange already one. He leveraged his political celebrity into a get out of jail free card for rape. The other irony is that at that time, Assange hadn’t done anything the 5/ US could charge him with. It was only from his Ecuador refuge that he began actively conspiring against the US and U.K. governments, becoming some sort of tool for the Russian security services. Glenn has another story. But it was clear in 2016 and 2017 ... 6/ that while Ecuador was willing to grant him refuge (albeit from rape prosecution) they did not want him using it to plot against other governments which Ecuador obviously wants to maintain some level of good relations with 7/ As I said, it would be very ill advised for the US to try to extradite or prosecute Assange (at least on the basis of any currently known or suspected evidence). But it would be ironic because only the Trump admin (or rather its appointees) wld even try. 8/ And Assange of course did everything in his power to get Trump elected and help the white nationalities and racist xenophobe groups who were and are his biggest supporters. 9/ It’s never been clear to me whether Assange was always who he turned out to be or was simply a data anarchist radical who went down a racist/authoritarian rabbit hole because of the series of events which unfolded after Wikileaks was formed. 10/ My hunch was always the former. But it barely matters.