Letters to Biden: Drop the Assange Indictments

Dear Mr. President,

I write to urge dismissal of the federal indictments against Mr. Julian Assange, the publisher of Wikileaks. Recent media reports bring me hope that Mr. Assange's 12-year confinement may finally end. This outcome would not only allow Mr. Assange to return to his family and to his journalism, but it would conclude an embarrassing period for the United States during which attitudes toward Mr. Assange and the press have varied wildly with the political winds. President Obama's Justice Department correctly found that prosecution of Mr. Assange would open the door to prosecuting the New York Times for publishing Wikileaks documents, and that respect for press freedom could not allow this. Notably, the revival of the Wikileaks prosecution came under a president notorious for his contempt of the press and of First Amendment freedoms generally.

In closing I note that I know Mr. Assange personally and regard him as a friend. Other friends, supporters like me of Wikileaks' journalism, have been harassed and threatened by US federal authorities. A book I gave Mr. Assange in London currently sits in an evidence repository in the US District Court Eastern District of Virginia. I write this letter while enjoying freedom in my home country, the United States, but that freedom is bitter so long as Mr. Assange sits in jail for no just cause.

Respectfully yours,

David W. Robinson, PhD

Professor of English and Comparative Literature (Ret.)

Technical Writer for Microsoft and Amazon (Ret.)

Dear President Biden,

I’m writing because I read that you are considering dropping charges against Julian Assange, and I want to urgently encourage you to do so.

I am an American citizen, a worker in the high tech industry, and a lifelong democrat. Your administration, and you personally, have revitalized my flagging optimism for our party (although my representatives in Congress, copied, have my full support and appreciation).

The USA aspires to stand for human rights and freedoms. We’ve struggled to live up to that aspiration, but it is critical that we continue that struggle. The right to freedom of expression and the freedom to publish information in the public interest are crucial, foundational rights and freedoms, without which we cannot function as a democracy. We must hew to our principles even when we do not like the outcomes – that is, of course, what principles are for.

We must not attack the gathering, reporting, and dissemination of information. If we are embarrassed and ashamed by what reporting reveals, we must change our behavior, not silence the reporter.

Please, do not extradite Julian Assange. Drop the charges against him and remind us all of the best of what the USA can be.

Yours very sincerely,

Jan Bultmann