Having the tools used against him is only one of a number of reasons an attorney would have the right to raise this issue. In the hypothetical future case, where Assange gets prosecuted for this recent leak, he has the right to challenge the government's assertion that this information was genuine, rather than merely a well-constructed fraud. That would potentially require calling hundreds of government witnesses attesting to the accuracy of the leaks, a VERY unappetizing thought for government! It would be a disaster. At this point, I suspect that the US Federal Government, if they found that Assange was VOLUNTARILY travelling to America, would do just about everything in its power to block him from doing so. If he succeeded, questions would be asked like "Why aren't they arresting/trying him?". Jim Bell From: Anthony Papillion <anthony@cajuntechie.org> Even though WikiLeaks have released the keys to the kingdom, I don't think it would matter for prosecution. Keep in mind that we have proof of all of the NSA stuff and yet, when a criminal defendant tried to use those as evidence in his case, he was told he couldn't because he could not proce that the tools were used specifically against him. I suspect any prosecution of Assange would likely follow a similar route. Anthony Papillion ----- Original Message ----- From: jim bell <jdb10987@yahoo.com> Sent: 03/12/2017 - 10:28 PM To: CypherPunks <cypherpunks@lists.cpunks.org> Subject: Is Assange now unprosecutable?
That recent leak of America's hacking secrets comes at an opportune time for Assange. He may have to leave that embassy in London within a few months. Generally, and unlike MY trial, a Federal criminal defendant gets great leeway to call witnesses for his defense. Now that he has published the 'keys to the kingdom', I doubt whether it would even be possible to prosecute him. Imagine all the witnesses he could call just to verify the genuineness of those recent documents! No doubt the person or people who leaked that material to Wikileaks knew this. Somebody deserves some big congratulations. Jim Bell