Glenn Greenwald, co-founding editor of The Intercept, told Hill.TV that the Justice Department’s new indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is an attempt to criminalize press freedoms such as source protection.
Greenwald said the indictment alleges that Assange — who famously leaked hacked Hillary Clinton emails during the 2016 presidential campaign — helped a source evade detection.
“Every journalist in the country does that,” Greenwald said. “It’s not just the right of a journalist, it’s the duty of a journalist to help their source not get caught. That’s called source protection.”
The indictment against Assange alleges he intentionally recruited and conspired with hackers affiliated with groups “LulzSec” and “Anonymous” to target and publish sensitive information. It does not add any new charges to the 18 brought against Assange last year, but expands their scope.
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