Programming note: Tonight, Wednesday, I'll be joining Tucker on the telly, live across America at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific. Hope you'll dial us up.
Last night Tucker reported something fairly astonishing even by the standards of the last fortnight: He said that Mitch McConnell told President Trump that if he pardoned Wikileaks founder Julian Assange he would be convicted by the Senate in his reimpeachment trial.
So, for whatever reason, Assange goes unpardoned. An Australian resident in London, he has had his life ruined for the crime of embarrassing the Deep State. Here is what Tucker and I had to say two years ago, and I stand by every word of it: if the most bloated "intelligence community" on the planet cannot keep its secrets, it has no claim upon a foreigner who owes it no allegiance. Click below to watch:
As noted above, the "indictment" is a joke that no judge from the functioning parts of the Common Law world should entertain for a moment. Eighteen months ago America's corrupt federal "justice" system updated the charge sheet to make it even more pathetic:
The Department of Justice is pleased to announce a "superseding indictment" in its case against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. So what's the big takeaway, Mister Prosecutor?
'New Allegations Assert Assange Conspired With "Anonymous" Affiliated Hackers, Among Others'
Wow. A conspiracy of anonymous persons on the Internet. Gotcha. But the DoJ wins 97 per cent of its cases without going to court, so, if you can get Assange onto US soil, he'll be in gaol for the rest of his natural...
I am inclined to agree with Breitbart's Allum Bokhari:
'No-one's interested in this Obama-Bush-Clinton vendetta. Prosecute Antifa's ringleaders.'
Fat chance of that. There's an actual insurrection on the streets of American cities, but federal justice is more concerned to punish Assange for the crime of making the world's most bloated "intelligence community" look stupid. I said on yesterday's Mark Steyn Show that, after the dispatch of fifteen agents to investigate Bubba Wallace's garage-door opener, I was in favor of defunding the FBI. But let's not get hung up on half-measures: Defund the DoJ!
As Tucker and I suggested last year, the only real crime here was committed by the IC fatheads who thought someone as obviously psychologically unsuited as Bradley/Chelsea Manning should be entrusted with the nation's secrets. Whichever brain-dead bureaucratic jobsworth made that decision is the guy who should be on trial.
I'd also emphasise a more basic point I make below: A government has a duty to keep its own secrets; nobody else does, least of all a foreign national who owes no allegiance to that government.
I regret that Trump did not see fit to pardon Assange. If McConnell's threat worked, then the Senate Minority Leader used Trump's conviction in a pseudo-trial that should not be taking place to advance Assange's conviction in an all too real trial that likewise should not be taking place. Shameful.
The Department of Justice and its subsidiary the FBI are beyond reform. I would support any candidate who pledges to close them down and start again.
Or are you still pinning your hopes on that Durham Report?
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Mark will be back on Wednesday evening with Tucker on the telly, live across America.