 Not too long ago, we learned that a British court is not going to be granting the United States its request to extradite Julian Assange WikiLeaks founder to the US on grounds that our prison system would not be able to accommodate Julian Assange And if he were to be extradited here, he would be at great risk. His health would literally be endangered It says a lot about our prison system and it's accurate However, the United States does have a limited window to appeal that decision and try to make their case once again So the question was would Joe Biden's administration be following in Trump's footsteps and continuing this attack on Freedom of the press and the answer is yes So as Reuters reporter Mark Hosenball reports President Joe Biden's administration plans to continue to seek to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange From the United Kingdom to the United States to face hacking conspiracy charges the US Justice Department said Justice Department spokesman Mark Ramondi on Tuesday said the US government will continue to challenge a British judge's ruling last month That Assange should not be extradited to the United States because of the risk He would commit suicide in a January 4th ruling the judge Vanessa Beretser said I find that the mental condition of Mr Assange is such that it would be oppressive to extradite him to the United States of America the British judge set Friday as a Deadline for the United States to appeal her ruling forbidding Assange's extradition Ramondi said the United States will challenge Beretser's ruling We continue to seek his extradition Obama's Justice Department decided not to seek Assange's extradition on the grounds That what Assange and WikiLeaks did was too similar to journalistic activities protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution Trump administration officials stepped up public criticism of Assange and WikiLeaks only weeks after taking office in January 2017 and subsequently filed a series of increasingly harsh criminal charges accusing Assange of participating in a hacking conspiracy. So this is a Very very disappointing. I'll be it not too surprising. I was hoping that Joe Biden would Take the same stands as Obama had here But unfortunately like once you ring the bell once you start going after press outlets for publishing leaks It's kind of hard to unring that bell right once the precedent is created Then you know you have an incentive to continue that trend while not looking as bad as your predecessor And that's what Joe Biden is doing and it is deeply deeply troubling And I think it's reasonable for us to expect progressive leaders who know what's at stake to speak out about this So I expect Bernie Sanders love them with peace and love to speak out and condemn Joe Biden's actions here I expect progressives members of the squad such as Mondare Jones Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to speak up because this isn't about Julian Assange This is about the precedent that it would set if he were in fact to be extradited to the United States for prosecution Because what the US government is doing if they were successful here is they are heavily Disincentivizing Journalist outlets from publishing leaks that the government doesn't want to get out Now this is just one side of the story the other side of the story is that whistleblowers have been aggressively targeted by Obama's administration by Trump's administration and Really if you want to get the full picture, then you have to look at what was published by Edward Snowden by reality winner What Chelsea Manning gave to Julian Assange, you know and what she exposed Was war crimes being committed by our government and they claimed that that shouldn't have been published because it poses a threat to National security that has not been proven by the way However, since that was published by WikiLeaks, they're trying to prosecute Julian Assange and WikiLeaks for that This is unprecedented and I don't think that people realize the importance of this case This is not about the 2016 election. This is not about the emails from John Podesta that WikiLeaks published This is about war crimes that WikiLeaks exposed that our government is doing So I hope that everyone on the left collectively steps up their advocacy for not just Julian Assange But also whistleblowers. We need to protect freedom of the press and also whistleblowers that give them leaks So Edward Snowden reality winner Chelsea Manning as well who is frequently a target who? She's been locked up to basically get her to rat out Julian Assange and whatnot And she hasn't spoken because she's principled and she believes in the First Amendment and the importance of freedom of the press So, you know, this again isn't super surprising But it is deeply disturbing that this is going on our government is trying to prosecute a journalist outlet for publishing leaks and Not many people are really paying attention to this story like the implications of this would be deeply troubling if This actually were to bear out and the US was successful and to anyone who were Really worried about Trump's attacks on the press. You should be screaming at the top of your lungs You should have been screaming at the top of your lungs about this But you know if they weren't concerned with the story when Trump was prosecuting Julian Assange I don't expect liberals to really be concerned with it if Joe Biden a Democratic president is doing it But I do hope that comrades in Congress and leftists speak up because this is Extremely troubling and it doesn't bode well for press freedom in America