Tribe and Dershowitz agree on the threat to freedom of press from the new Assange indictment.

Both are Constitutional Law professors at Harvard; and Tribe has been speaking out strongly against Trump while Dershowitz has been an apologist.

But the threat of the superseding Assange indictment is something on which they agree.

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THIS IS THE DERSHOWITZ ARTICLE:

https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/445447-julian-assange-indictment-endangers-press-freedom

The federal indictment of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange this week for publishing stolen classified information raises serious First Amendment issues. Assange already has been indicted for improperly trying to obtain a password that would have accessed classified material. But the current indictment is different. This latest one is for the constitutionally protected act of publishing such classified material stolen by another individual.

The New York Times, the Washington Post, and other mainstream media outlets have published stolen classified information without having been indicted. Wikileaks is not mainstream, but the First Amendment draws no distinction between the nature of the medium for publishing. If Assange were to be successfully prosecuted and his conviction affirmed on appeal, that precedent would lie around like a loaded gun ready to be aimed at any newspaper or television station that published any stolen classified material. In an age when political leaders of both parties are weaponizing the criminal laws for their partisan advantage, this would be an especially dangerous precedent, allowing selective prosecution of media enemies.

All civil libertarians regardless of party should be concerned about the current indictment against Assange. I visited him in London several years ago and provided legal consultation when he was first arrested and when the Obama administration was considering indicting him. Indeed, we were concerned at the time that there might be a sealed federal indictment against him. The Obama administration apparently concluded in the end that the risks to freedom of the press were far too serious. The Trump administration apparently has reached a different conclusion on this.


SNIP