Assange Visitors Sued Pompeo For 4th AM Violations Now US Says No Privacy in Embassy

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell Book

SDNY COURTHOUSE, March 20 – When jury selection was completed for the retrial of accused CIA Vault 7 leaker Joshua Schulte, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Jesse M. Furman told the jurors, Do not read or say anything about the case. Inner City Press was there, and live tweeted here.

[July 20 denial of access here; Brutal Kangaroo]

On August 15, 2022 after conviction Schulte, a group of lawyers and journalist who visited Julian Assange in the Ecuador Embassy in London sued Mike Pompeo for surveillance in violation of the US Fourth Amendment. They held a press conference, and Inner City Press asked if they will seek emergency relief. Not for now (video here; Complaint here).

On October 12, plaintiffs' counsel asked to adjourn and postpone the October 17 conference in the case: "Plaintiffs had difficulty locating the accurate addresses for the two Spanish defendants, David Morales (“Morales”), a Spanish citizen, and Undercover Global S.L. (“UC Global”), a Spanish corporation."

On January 13, 2023, the US Attorney's Office wrote to Judge Koetlt requesting a pre-motion hearing for them to dismiss the complaint against Pompeo and the CIA.  DOJ argues that there is no "Bivens" remedy available, and states that "matters intimately related to foreign policy and national security are rarely proper subjects for judicial intervention."

On January 18, the plaintiffs responded that the CIA and Pompeo have defaulted, and waited until the last day to filed a letter for a pre-motion conference. They note they are not suing the CIA for money, only an injunction against sharing information. They say the Court will conclude that the Defaulted Defendants motion to dismiss should be denied.

On Saturday, January 14, Judge Koeltl ordered that "the parties are directed to appear on January 20, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. (Signed by Judge John G. Koeltl on 1/13/2023) (jca)

On January 20, Inner City Press covered and live tweeted it, thread here.

On February 16, US DOJ requested and obtained another 30 day extension, saying the Fourth Amendment claim requires it. The plaintiffs did not consent, but the extension was granted. Letter on Patreon here.

On March 16, Judge Koeltl granted a joint request under which the CIA and Pompeo expanded their word limit to 14,000 - and the plaintiff's delayed their opposition to May 8, reply May 30.

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On March 20, the US filed its 42 page motion to dismiss, arguing among other things that Plaintiffs Had No Reasonable Expectation in their alleged conversations with Assange, and that the "incident" capture of US Citizen info during extraterritorial surveillance of foreign targets does not violation the 4th Amendment."

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