https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/julian-assange-trial-us-trump-chelsea-m... Julian Assange is not on trial for his personality – but here’s how the US government made you focus on it By drawing attention away from the principles of the case, the obsession with his character pushes out the significance of WikiLeaks’ revelations By Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker Assange is not on trial for skateboarding in the Ecuadorian embassy. Assange faces extradition to the United States because he published incontrovertible proof of war crimes and abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan, embarrassing the most powerful nation on Earth. Assange published hard evidence of “the ways in which the first world exploits the third”, according to whistleblower Chelsea Manning, the source of that evidence. Assange is on trial for his journalism, for his principles, not his personality.