It seems that Wikileaks officials were with Edward Snowden when he fled to Russia and offered him legal guidance. It is rumored that Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, is pressing Ecuadorian officials to grant Snowden’s request for asylum.
Assange offered his thoughts on Edward Snowden in an exclusive interview on ABC’s “This Week,” beginning with the following overview on the situation:
The situation now with Edward Snowden is very sensitive one. It’s a matter of international diplomatic negotiations. So, there’s little that I can productively say about what is happening directly.
But look, let’s pull back a bit. Why is it that Mr. Snowden is not in the United States? He should feel that he should be afforded justice in the United States. But his situation is very similar to a situation that I face and that my staff face where we have been sucked into a grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, that’s where the charges for Mr. Snowden came from, Alexandria, Virginia.
What do we know about that district? It’s six kilometers from the center of Washington, D.C., the jury pool is made up of the CIA, Pentagon, et cetera. In the legal community in the United States, it’s known as the rocket docket because of the lack of scrutiny procedures have there. There’s a 99 percent chance that — a 99.97 percent chance that if you’re a target of the grand jury you’ll be indicted. And a 99 percent that if you’re indicted by a grand jury you will be convicted.
So this is not a situation — ignoring all the political rhetoric which has been terrible over the past two weeks, where Mr. Snowden can feel that he would be afforded justice in the United States.
You can watch the interview below and you can go here for the transcript.
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