Witness Questions Claim Assange Conspired With Manning To Hack Into Pentagon Database

LONDON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th September, 2020) US computer expert Patrick Eller questioned on Friday the claim by US prosecutors that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had conspired with US Army Intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in 2010 to hack into a Pentagon database to steal classified information that was later published by the whistleblower.

Eller, who served for 20 years in the US Army as a criminal investigator and supervisor of investigations relating to digital evidence, told the London Criminal Court deciding on the whistleblower extradition to the United States that the charge of conspiring to commit computer fraud was weak.

"Timeline of events shows that this Jabber chat which allegedly took place between Manning and Assange occurred after Manning had already downloaded the 10 Reykjavik 13 cable, the Guantanamo Detainee Assessment Briefs, the Iraq War Logs and the Afghanistan War Reports," the witness for the defense said.

According to the expert, the only documents Manning sent after the alleged password cracking attempt were the US State Department cables.

The witness also pointed out that there was no need for the Intelligence analyst, who was convicted in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses, to conspire with Assange to break the password because she had authorized access to the database.

The US Department of Justice is seeking the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder on 17 espionage charges and one count of computer misuse, which carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison, for the publication of classified information on the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and thousands of US diplomatic cables between 2010 and 2011.

The hearing to decide whether Assange should be sent to the United States resumed on September 7 at the London Central Criminal Court, after six months of delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and is due to close on October 2.

The decision about whether he will be handed into the US authorities will not be made until after the US presidential election on November 3, after the judge presiding over the case granted on Friday the whistleblower's legal team another four weeks to submit the closing arguments.