What witnesses said
Two anonymous former employees of Spanish surveillance company UC Global testified that the company’s director David Morales secured a contract with top Trump financier Sheldon Adelson to spy on Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, from 2017 until his eviction in April 2019, and fed the recordings to United States intelligence. The whistleblowers said Morales was particularly zealous about recording Assange’s conversations with his lawyers, and even discussed kidnapping or poisoning him.
Why it matters
The Nixon Administration’s case against Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg was dropped when the defense discovered that government officials had broken into Ellsberg’s psychiatrist and the FBI had intercepted some of his phone calls. James Goodale, the lawyer who defended the New York Times’ right to publish the Pentagon Papers, wrote, “For similar reasons, the case against Assange should be dismissed, if it reaches the U.S. courts.” The testimony about Republican Dana Rohrabacher’s visit is also relevant for the case that this prosecution is heavily politicized.
Key testimony
- Anonymous witnesses detail U.S.-directed spying of Julian Assange in the Embassy
- Guy Goodwin-Gill: Spied on in the Embassy
Read more
- Spanish security company spied on Julian Assange’s meetings with lawyers (El Pais)
- Three protected witnesses accuse Spanish ex-marine of spying on Julian Assange (El Pais)
- US demands hinder Spanish probe into alleged CIA ties to security firm that spied on Assange (El Pais)
- ‘The American friends’: New court files expose Sheldon Adelson’s security team in US spy operation against Julian Assange (The Grayzone)