The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Spanish corporation Undercover (UC) Global were found guilty by a New York court of violating the constitutional rights to privacy of US citizens who visited Julian Assange while he was being detained in Ecuador’s embassy in London.
The lawsuit was filed in 2022 by four American citizens—two lawyers (Margaret Kunstler and Deborah Hrbek, who have both represented Assange) and two journalists (Charles Glass and John Goetz). The suit was targeted against the CIA, former CIA Director Mike Pompeo, and David Morales, former Special Forces soldier in the Spanish military and the founder of Spanish surveillance company UC Global, which provided security for the Ecuadorian embassy. The plaintiffs argued that their privacy rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution were violated when the CIA under Pompeo spied on their visits to Assange.
“The United States Constitution shields American citizens from U.S. government overreach even when the activities take place in a foreign embassy in a foreign country,” Richard Roth, the leading attorney on the case argued in 2022. The CIA is officially prohibited from conducting espionage on American citizens—but whether they follow this law is a different story.
A Spanish company and the CIA found guilty of violating rights of Julian Assange’s visitors | International | EL PAÍS Englishm https://t.co/AtaYIq3lik
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The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York. The suit alleged that the plaintiffs were forced to hand over their electronic devices to UC Global, which then downloaded the information contained on the devices and sent it to the CIA.
The recent decision by Judge John G. Koeltl noted UC Global’s violation of rights. But the judge also said the recordings of conversations that UC Global made were not illegal on the grounds that the embassy is considered a public place.
With this victory against the CIA, the plaintiffs will now pursue a declassification of documents related to the incident. Allegedly, UC Global also installed video cameras and microphones throughout the Ecuadorian Embassy.
Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, was hiding out at the embassy to escape prosecution. He is wanted by U.S. authorities on 18 counts, including a spying charge, due to WikiLeaks’ release of American military documents as well as cables from American diplomats. Assange released said documents to reveal what he perceived as egregious acts carried out in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As of January 2023, Assange was being held in Belmarsh maximum security prison in southeast London. He had been incarcerated there since 2019 when the Ecuadorian Embassy ejected him after seven years of granting him asylum.
He is awaiting his final chance to appeal the legal system before he is extradited to the United States.
Shane Devine is a writer covering politics, economics, and culture for Valuetainment. Follow Shane on X (Twitter).
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