New files found in a Spanish court confirm C.I.A. spying on Julian Assange in Ecuador’s embassy.
Watch the replay of a press conference here by plaintiffs who’ve sued the C.I.A. for also spying on them while visiting Assange.
The plaintiffs, all U.S. citizens who visited Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, claim in their lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency and former Director Mike Pompeo that their devices were surveilled at the embassy while seeing Assange.
The C.I.A. has filed a motion to dismiss the case, but new evidence has emerged in a Spanish court case that provides further proof that the Spanish security company UC Global was contracted by the C.I.A. to spy on Assange 24/7 and on his visitors, including on privileged conversations with his lawyers.
New files were discovered by Assange’s lawyers in Madrid that give direct evidence that UC Global was working for the C.I.A. Previous testimony in the case had only mentioned a U.S. “intelligence agency” or the “American friends.” The newly discovered files, first reported by El Pais, were withheld by the Spanish police. Pompeo was subpoenaed by the court in June 2022 but has refused to turn up.
The plaintiffs in the case, American journalists and lawyers, are attorneys Margaret Ratner Kunstler and Deborah Hrbek and journalists John Goetz and Charles Glass.
Kunstler and Hrbek were joined by their attorney Richard Roth at the press conference.