Will Julian Assange agree to extradition now that Manning got clemency?

[Medievaldragon]

Many people in higher spheres are criticizing Obama for commuting Chelsea Manning's 35-years sentence, and to release him on May 2017.

What people has to focus on is Obama's motivations for doing it.

On January 11, Edward Snowden tweeted to Obama:

"Mr. President, if you grant only one act of clemency as you exit the White House, please: free Chelsea Manning. You alone can save her life."

https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/819177951040249856

It is curious that Snowden asks clemency for Manning and not for himself.

On January 12, WikiLeaks tweeted:

"If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ case."

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/819630102787059713

Now, I don't know about you, but this was a very astonishing move. Will Assange agree to extradition now that Mannings is to be free?

If anything, interesting developments out of the blue.

Original News:

The announcement came days before Obama commuted Manning's sentence

Five days before President Obama commuted Chelsea Manning’s prison sentence, WikiLeaks tweeted that the group’s editor in chief Julian Assange would agree to be extradited to the U.S. if Manning was given clemency.


Obama’s decision means Manning will be released in May instead of in 2045, when her sentence was originally due to end, the New York Times reports. She leaked hundreds of thousands of military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks, for which she was convicted in 2013
“If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ case,” WikiLeaks tweeted on Thursday. Assange has been in the Ecuadorean embassy in London since 2012, and if extradited to the U.S., would likely be prosecuted for his involvement in the publication of millions of leaked, secret documents. (He also faces Swedish allegations of rape and sexual assault.)

If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ case https://t.co/MZU30SlfGK
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 12, 2017

Edward Snowden also threw his support behind clemency for Manning, tweeting on Wednesday, “Mr. President, if you grant only one act of clemency as you exit the White House, please: free Chelsea Manning. You alone can save her life.”


Commenting on Snowden and Manning’s pleas for clemency on Friday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest contrasted the two cases. “Chelsea Manning is somebody who went through the military criminal justice process, was exposed to due process, was found guilty, was sentenced for her crimes, and she acknowledged wrongdoing,” he said, according to the Times. “Mr. Snowden fled into the arms of an adversary, and has sought refuge in a country that most recently made a concerted effort to undermine confidence in our democracy.”


WikiLeaks had not yet tweeted in response to the news as of late Tuesday afternoon. -- source

UPDATE 1/19/2017

It didn't take long to get an answer. Assange backpedaled his pledge for extradition.

"If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ case," WikiLeaks said, apparently referring to the U.S. Department of Justice's continuing investigation into the radical transparency website.

But when Obama granted clemency to Manning on Tuesday, setting a May release date that lops almost 30 years off her sentence, Assange's lawyers said it wasn't enough.

"There's no question that what President Obama did is not what Assange was seeking," said Barry Pollack, who represents the WikiLeaks chief in the United States. "Mr. Assange was saying that Chelsea should never have been prosecuted, never have been sentenced to decades in prison, and should have been released immediately."

Melinda Taylor, who also represents Assange, agreed, saying in an email that clemency was "far short of what Mr. Assange asked for and what Ms. Manning deserved (which is to be pardoned and freed immediately)."

Neither supplied any evidence that Assange had used the words "immediate" or "pardon" in relation to his extradition offer, but Pollack said it was clear that was what Assange meant — noting that the Australian computer expert had previously pushed for Manning's pardon.

"Why would he be called for Manning's release in a few months from now?" Pollack said. "You can parse his tweets any way that you want to parse them. I think his position has been clear throughout."

Critics of Assange had a field day, accusing him of dishonesty or using Manning's case to win publicity. "Julian Assange Backpedals on Extradition Promise in Record Time," read one headline in tech website Gizmodo.

It's not the first time Assange's pronouncements in relation to Manning haven't quite worked out as advertised.

In December 2010, journalists revealed that WikiLeaks had failed to honor a pledge to help support Manning's legal defense fund. It was only after the story was aired in the media that WikiLeaks paid up, reducing its expected contribution from $50,000 to $20,000 and then finally to $15,100, according to press accounts at the time -- source

UPDATE 1/20/2017

Odd. Now Assange says he looks forward to discussing with the DOJ the terms for his extradition.

"I look forward to having a conversation with the DOJ about what the correct way forward is," -- source

[Wyrt]

He won't give himself up until March when Manning is free and then Trump will pardon him.

[ati87]

Assange will not let himself to be extradited to the US, whatever he did he broke US laws and no sitting president will pardon him until he is going to leave office.

Sure Trump is weird and just might pardon him outright because ''he did him a favor'' but not a single one of his advisers will recommend him that.

- - - Updated - - -

He won't give himself up until March when Manning is free and then Trump will pardon him.

Obama is doing overtime now because he is leaving office and next president isn't clinton.

This Obama is the unshackled Obama that doesn't have to work with bought and corrupt democrats and republicans to get things done.

[Aggrophobic]

Of course he won't.

[Medievaldragon]

He won't give himself up until March when Manning is free and then Trump will pardon him.

Assange will not let himself to be extradited to the US, whatever he did he broke US laws and no sitting president will pardon him until he is going to leave office.

Sure Trump is weird and just might pardon him outright because ''he did him a favor'' but not a single one of his advisers will recommend him that.

Of course he won't.

I understand your points, but it's odd to make a commitment for extradition, and then not go through. It would be seen as bluff or lie. Lack of word and credibility.

I am unsure if the commuting was a response to Snowden's or WikiLeak's plea for Manning, or if it was something that was underway and coincidentally the timing made it look like it was because of their tweets -- but if it was, then the move was made swiftly expecting Assange to agree to extradition, and/or putting him in the spot --

"OK, Manning is free. Your turn."

"Ohh, now you refuse to be extradited. The world will see you now as a liar."

So yea, that's a strange move.

[ati87]

I understand your points, but it's odd to make a commitment for extradition, and then not go through. It would be seen as bluff or lie. Lack of word and credibility.

I am unsure if the commuting was a response to Snowden's or WikiLeak's plea for Manning, or if it was something that was underway and coincidentally the timing made it look like it was because of their tweets -- but if it was, then the move was made swiftly expecting Assange to agree to extradition, and/or putting him in the spot --

"OK, Manning is free. Your turn."

"Ohh, now you refuse to be extradited. The world will see you now as a liar."

So yea, that's a strange move.

But Assange hasn't been convicted of anything so far as I know, in other words Obama can't really pardon him.

The president isn't a judge and juror, he can pardon but he can't sentence people to jail.

[Independent voter]

I don't think Assange will.

The whole thing was a bit of a farce from the start, Wikileaks is pretty much a newspaper, Assange didn't steal the documents a source gave the documents to him. News reporters often have sources and they don't get in trouble unless they refuse a judge's order to reveal their source. In Assange's case we already know the source, Manning.

But what we will do is alow the Swedes to extradite Assange to face all those sexual assault charges. And it's Sweden, if Assange is found guilty of sexual assault he'll spend what? A week at a health spa like Swedish correctional facility?

[KrazyK923]

Of course he won't.

At this point, Assange is nothing but a blowhard who destroyed all of his and Wikileaks' credibility by being so brazenly partisan during the last US election.

Furthermore he's not even avoiding the US for the charges of sedition or any other kind of information-based crime, he's doing so because he sexually assaulted somebody and ran like a cowardly bitch.

He played chicken with Obama and lost. And now is most definitely going to try and pretend there's some loophole that will give him the excuse to not do what he said. Probably because Manning's sentence was commuted, not pardoned.

And even though I know for a fact it won't, maybe if even one Trumpette sees what an absolute cowardly cunt he is, they'll stop gargling his balls long enough to be objective for the first time in the last decade.

[Aggrophobic]

I understand your points, but it's odd to make a commitment for extradition, and then not go through. It would be seen as bluff or lie. Lack of word and credibility.

I am unsure if the commuting was a response to Snowden's or WikiLeak's plea for Manning, or if it was something that was underway and coincidentally the timing made it look like it was because of their tweets -- but if it was, then the move was made swiftly expecting Assange to agree to extradition, and/or putting him in the spot --

"OK, Manning is free. Your turn."

"Ohh, now you refuse to be extradited. The world will see you now as a liar."

So yea, that's a strange move.

He already proved he's willing to ignore laws and run from justice.
He seems to belive that he's above the law and most other people.

Lying will most likely not be a problem for him.

[Garnier Fructis]

I understand your points, but it's odd to make a commitment for extradition, and then not go through. It would be seen as bluff or lie. Lack of word and credibility.

It would be seen as a bluff because that's what it would be. He tried to damage Obama's reputation, but now he either gets extradited or damages his own reputation. A total backfire.

[jugzilla]

It is lucky for Peyton Manning, or Chelsea or whatever name he chooses to hide behind, that Jugzilla was not emperor of the SA. Manning should have been have been executed. Snowden was a whistle-blower, he should be the one pardoned. Manning was a sexually confused traitor, who did not expose a conspiracy, but only exposed operational level details that got US friendly people killed.

[KrazyK923]

only exposed operational level details that got US friendly people killed.

One problem:

This cannot be proven by anybody.

But please spend more of your post being a transphobe for no apparent reason other than to pretend you're making a point.

[Bullettime]

It's a weird situation. He tried to bluff Obama for some random left field fucking reason and got called for it. So now what? He turns himself in? Yeah right. Even if it kills his personal credibility further, he's not going to let himself get extradited.

He'll likely just start backstroking vigorously, credibility be damned. He could be banking on a Trump pardon but I wouldn't gamble my "freedom" on that when Trump is already facing a mountain in his first few months with the Russian controversy threatening to bury him after inauguration if all these intelligence agencies really do know something. Pardoning Assange would just make Trump look even more complicit and would reek of a backscratching after the DNC email fiasco and accusations regarding it.

[Nathreim]

Obama cant get him through a trial before his term is up. So even if he did come to the US Trump doesn't have to sick his AG on him. He can just tell the AG not to press charges or to drop the case and Assange will walk.

[jugzilla]

One problem:

This cannot be proven by anybody.

The internet doesn't seem to have a good idea what is going on in Afghanistan or northern Pakistan. Manning leaked names. The very fact that their names were posted for our enemies to see, might concern you. If you desire proof, or pictures of dead bodies, or whatever to fill your carnal desires, I will be found wanting. He gave NAMES of collaborators with US/NATO forces. He is a piece of shit. I don't care how bad he wanted to get the government to pay for his sex change, but people died.

Again. And this is dead serious. You can't google your way to understanding what is happening in that area.

[SL1200]

No he won't, he's not an honest or honorable person.

[Bullettime]

Obama cant get him through a trial before his term is up. So even if he did come to the US Trump doesn't have to sick his AG on him. He can just tell the AG not to press charges or to drop the case and Assange will walk.

The problem is, if you were Assange, would you really gamble on this? Trump is already being threatened by every intelligence agency in the US, and even some of the US's allies, over the Russian ties. Letting Assange walk would only create even more controversy and strengthen the current accusations, especially given the accusations that Assange was working as a middleman between the parties (RNC/Trump and Russia) with the DNC hack deal they struck.

If Assange does keep his word, he's taking a gamble and it will be interesting to see how much possible fuel this throws onto the dumpster fire the first few months of Trump's presidency are shaping up to be.

[skitzin]

Well according the latest information Assange has said he will stand by it.

Time will tell if he actually will. I do think that he will likely wait until Manning is physically freed though.

[jugzilla]

Obama has like 60 some hours left, so who knows. But I find it very interesting how he pardons this guy, and not Snowden. Snowden exposed the illegal gathering of information against US citizens. Manning exposed embarrassing details that damaged our entire human relationship capacity in every theater. And how did a Private have that power to begin with? At any rate, why would any foreigner collaborate with the US, given how trivial of an issue we make this to be.

Snowden, was a whistleblower. What whistle was Manning blowing? What did he expose?

[caervek]

Technically he can't because there is no US extradition request in place for him (and even if one were generated he already has a pending extradition request for Sweden, and they get first priority).