© Mark CHew/Fairfax Media/Getty ImagesJulian Assange
In a tweet, WikiLeaks complained that Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., sent the letter without a signature from the panel's GOP chairman and noted that it was done just weeks before the 2018 midterm elections.
"NEW: Ahead of midterms, ranking Democrat, but not Republican, of House Foreign Relations Committee pressures Ecuador's president @Lenin to hand over @WikiLeaks' publisher @JulianAssange "A dangerous criminal and a threat to global security," the WikiLeaks Twitter account said.
Assange has been holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London since 2012, avoiding extradition to Sweden where authorities wanted to question him over allegations of sexual assault and rape. Sweden has since dropped the investigation, but Assange has remained in the embassy, fearing the U.S. would seek to arrest and extradite him over WikiLeaks' release of classified documents.
In the letter sent Wednesday, Engel, along with Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., a former chairwoman of the Foreign Relations Committee, called for an end to the Assange "impasse." "We are very concerned with Julian Assange's continued presence at your embassy in London and his receipt of Ecuadorian citizenship last year," they wrote.
The lawmakers also said they were "disturbed" about reports that Assange's access to the Internet had been restored. A period of isolation began in March after the Ecuadorian government claimed Assange had run afoul of "a written commitment made to the government at the end of 2017 not to issue messages that might interfere with other states." Follow-up reporting suggested Assange was commanded to do menial chores to regain some of his freedoms.
The bipartisan letter specifically notes that Assange "compromised the national security of the United States" on numerous occasions, referring to the publications of stolen documents from Democratic officials.
"He has done so by publicly releasing classified government documents along with confidential materials from individuals connected to our country's 2016 presidential election," they wrote. "As you yourself have noted, he has repeatedly used his standing in the international media to meddle in the affairs of foreign governments such as Spain and the United Kingdom."Engel and Ros-Lehtinen also said Ecuador's willingness to protect Assange has "frayed" the country's relations with "like-minded governments" and Assange "remains wanted by British authorities for a bail violation."
They added that Assange "remains a dangerous criminal and a threat to global security, and he should be brought to justice."
Assange was replaced as editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks in September by spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson.
Comment: Because truth can't be altered once it is revealed, we must punish the messenger. Assange is no criminal and needs not be brought to 'justice'.