Week ahead: US raises pressure on WikiLeaks

The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, could reportedly face criminal charges from the U.S. government.

CNN reported on Thursday that the Trump Justice Department may seek Assange’s arrest on charges that stem from aiding Edward Snowden publish leaked documents detailing the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance programs.

If the administration carries through with the plan it would mark a new stage in the U.S. fight against WikiLeaks.

The group has remained a thorn in the U.S. intelligence community’s side, with Assange evading authorities from the Ecuadorian embassy in the United Kingdom.

The news about potential criminal charges for Assange renewed debate over freedom of the press, with many worrying about the longterm fallout from prosecution. Critics pointed out that nearly all news sites publish stories from the same leaks as the website.

{mosads}The Obama administration was reluctant to move against WikiLeaks in court for that reason, fearful of a precedent that would imply that newspapers and television stations had also violated the law by reporting on the content of those leaks.

CNN reported that the Attorney General Jeff Sessions plans to sidestep some of those First Amendment constitutional issues by charging Assange with aiding Snowden, the National Security Agency contractor-turned-leaker.

But raising pressure on Assange and WikiLeaks could bring blowback.

The report comes with WikiLeaks back on the frontpages, currently knee-deep in releasing a series of documents allegedly stolen from secure CIA networks. The website has been publishing new documents every Friday.

Those disclosures have also sparked a reported manhunt by the CIA and FBI to find the leaker.

The United States intelligence community already took one punch at WikiLeaks earlier this month when CIA Director Mike Pompeo devoted a full speech ostensibly devoted to national security to instead slam Assange and his site, calling it a “non-state hostile intelligence service.”

The documents have not shown any substantial wrongdoing, but Assange claimed during an interview this week that he had documents showing “all sorts of illegal actions by the CIA” during an interview with The Intercept that the site would later release.

WikiLeaks has a history of timing major document releases to big events, including first publishing Hillary Clinton’s emails three days before the Democratic National Convention. The group also published excerpts from Clinton speeches just hours after the “Access Hollywood” tapes showing Donald Trump talking about groping women became public.

Next week also marks a major meeting between the United States and its intelligence allies.

With WikiLeaks under new pressure, many expect Assange to try to hit back hard.

Elsewhere in Washington, the House Committee on Armed Services will meet next week with several former Department of Defense personnel to discuss IT equipment acquisition and management.

On Wednesday, a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee will hold a hearing on China’s rising importance in the tech sphere.

And, on Monday, Georgetown University will host a star-studded cybersecurity conference. Speaking at the conference are Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator Robert Joyce, White House adviser Sebastian Gorka, author Kim Zetter, and international officials from the European Union, Ukraine, Estonia, Japan and Germany.