They accuse the CIA and its former director, Mike Pompeo, of intercepting their phone conversations and copying the contents of their cell phones and computers.
American lawyers for the founder of the WikiLeaks website, the Julian Assangeannounced yesterday Monday that they filed lawsuit against the CIA and its former manager Mike Pompeowho they accuse of intercepting their phone conversations and copying the contents of their cell phones and computers.
The lawyers and two journalists involved in the lawsuit are all Americans and say the US spy agency violated their constitutional right to have their private conversations with Julian Assange, who is Australian, protected.
They allege that the CIA worked with a foreign security firm contracted by the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where Julian Assange had taken refuge for seven years, to spy on the WikiLeaks founder, members of his defense team, journalists and other persons he met.
Mr Assange is at risk of extradition from Britain to the US, where authorities want to try him for “espionage” over the release of more than 700,000 confidential and classified US diplomatic and military documents, mainly about the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to lawyer Robert Boyle, who is representing the applicants, the spying they allege they suffered also means Mr Assange’s right to a fair trial has been “nibbled away” as “the government knows the content of the conversations” that he had with his lawyers, as he pointed out to journalists.
“There must be sanctions, as well as dismissal of the charges or withdrawal of the extradition request, in response to these activities, which were clearly unconstitutional,” he ruled.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of attorneys Margaret Ratner Kunstler and Deborah Herbeck and journalists Charles Glass and John Gage.
They target the CIA, its former director and ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the security firm Undercover Global and its chairman David Morales Guillen.
According to the lawsuit, Undercover Global, a Spain-based company contracted by the Ecuadorian embassy in the British capital, collected information on behalf of the CIA from the plaintiffs’ devices, specifically their conversations with Mr. Assange, and had placed microphones inside the building, the recordings of which, as well as footage from a closed surveillance system, were also sent to US intelligence.
Mr. Pompeo “was aware of and authorized” this intelligence gathering, according to the indictment, which states that Undercover Global was recruited by the CIA in 2017.
Julian Assange has appealed the British government’s decision to grant his extradition request to the US.
If convicted, he could face up to 175 years in prison.
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