EXCLUSIVE Julian Assange Went After a Former Ally. It Backfired Epically.
EXCLUSIVE
Julian Assange Went After a Former Ally. It Backfired Epically.
WikiLeaks’ founder tried to retaliate against hacktivist hero Barrett Brown and prompted a crack-up at a whistleblower protection group, losing an asset in an extradition clash.
SPENCER ACKERMAN
08.13.18 8:15 AM ET
A botched power play by Julian Assange has led to a split within a key organization supporting whistleblowers and leaves the WikiLeaks founder more isolated than ever among his core constituency of radical transparency activists.
Assange has grown furious at a one-time ally with substantial moral authority within their movement: the journalist and activist Barrett Brown.
Since his release from federal prison on trumped-up charges related to a major corporate hack, Brown been increasingly public in voicing disgust at Assange’s embrace of Donald Trump and general comfort with the nationalist right. That has led Assange, an erstwhile transparency advocate and whistleblower champion, to retaliate.
“I have been increasingly vocal about my growing distaste for WikiLeaks in general and Julian Assange in particular, largely due to his close and ongoing involvement with fascist entities, his outright lies about his role in the last U.S. election, and his willingness to have others tell similar lies on his behalf,” Brown told The Daily Beast. “I have also continued to support his rights against the state and private organizations that have pursued him from the very beginning, when his original mission of ethical transparency was still in play.”
Assange had a lever against Brown. Brown has received financial backing from the Courage Foundation, a whistleblower protection group. Courage operates WikiLeaks’ legal defense fund, which is increasingly important to Assange amid rumors that Ecuador will soon evict Assange from its London embassy, where he has lived since 2012 following a since-shuttered rape investigation in Sweden and possible interest in Assange from U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller, as part of his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, last week subpoenaed an alleged backchannel between Assange and Trump consigliere Roger Stone.
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