Judging Freedom - Smollett's Guilty Verdict & Assange's U.S. Extradition

Episode Date: December 11, 2021

Today on Judging Freedom, Judge Andrew Napolitano has opinions on two trending headlines: Jussie Smollett's guilty verdict and Julian Assange's U.S. Extradition. Jussie Smollett’s conviction Thursday for lying to police about a racist, homophobic attack came nearly three years after his report of a horrifying hate crime quickly became part of a polarized political landscape, with people — including the president of the United States — weighing in from all over. The Judge breaks it all down. A British appellate court opened the door Friday for Julian Assange to be extradited to the United States on spying charges by overturning a lower court decision that the WikiLeaks founder’s mental health was too fragile to withstand incarceration in America. The Judge details why that's the wrong move. #JussieSmollett #JulianAssange #JudgeNapolitanoSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

hey judge napolitano here with sort of a pop-up for you what's on my mind i'll tell you what's on my mind it's friday afternoon about uh quarter four eastern time december 10 2021 two profound legal issues are on my mind. The first is Jesse Smollett. You've heard about that, heard about him. And the second is Julian Assange. We'll start with Jesse. The actor from the Fox show Empire was accused of staging an attack on himself for whatever reason he thought he'd benefit from it whether it was to impress his public or to induce sympathy from his producers and the prosecutor in chicago decided not to press charges it is of course a crime to stage a crime and that's what the original charge was. But in the act of being accused of staging a crime, Jesse spoke, gave so many false statements to the police that they became infuriated and sued him for $175,000, which is what they said their overtime was, running down these rabbit holes of versions of these events that Jesse had given him.

The local prosecutor decided not to prosecute him, but to fine him the $10,000 he had posted for bail. However, his persistence, it's his own fault that this happened, his persistence in saying, they attacked me, they attacked me, I didn't concoct it. Who is the judge to appoint a special prosecutor? Dan Webb, whom I know. Dan is the former federal prosecutor, the former, excuse me, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, which is Chicago and the top half of the state of Illinois. And Dan summoned a grand jury, and the grand jury indicted Jesse not for concocting a crime, because he had already been relieved of that criminal prosecution, but for lying to the police. They charged them with

six lies. Now, in my view, it's very problematic to charge somebody with lying to the police. Why is that? Because the police are allowed to lie to you in order to trick you into saying what they want you to say. So you're in a conversation with a cop. The cop's allowed to lie to you. But if you lie to the cop, it's a crime. Not in every state. It is in the federal system if you lie to an FBI agent. And it certainly is in the federal system if you lie to an fbi agent and it certainly is in illinois

but it was jesse's persistence if he had just said okay i made it up let's forget about it i'll make a public statement i was wrong i wasn't thinking properly his persistence in lying is what caused uh the state to prosecute him especially the lies in the face of overwhelming evidence. To the contrary, the two guys that supposedly beat him up have records of payments to him and text messages and email communications showing the planning and concocting of this. Anyway, he was tried this week on six lies and was convicted on five of them. One of them, the jury decided it wasn't a lie. He now faces three years in jail. In my opinion, he should spend some time in jail because he materially disrupted the justice system in Chicago and assaulted people's faith in the justice

system. However, the rules for sentencing in Chicago indicate that this level of crime, lying to the police, especially when they knew they were being lied to by a person who does not have a criminal record, and Jesse does not have a criminal record, the indication is no jail time, probably three to five years of probation and a few hundred hours of community service. This tore the city of Chicago apart and it tore apart the African-American community. I have friends in the African-American community that stood up for this guy

and now they want him prosecuted for perjury, which still could happen. It is clear that he lied under oath. Is the government going to go after him again? I don't think so, but they have the basis for doing it. Julian Assange, in my opinion, is an American hero. He risked his life to expose truthful information, and his exposition of that truthful information is protected by the Constitution in a case known as the Pentagon Papers. Julian Assange is the co-founder and the head of WikiLeaks. In that capacity, he received information from a person who stole it. That person went to jail and was eventually

pardoned by President Obama. But when you're in the media, when you're in the business of conveying the truth or conveying an opinion, and you receive information that is materially of interest to the public, there is no crime in publishing it. The First Amendment protects you. What did he publish? He published the fact that the American military knowingly killed civilians in Afghanistan and the drone operators laughed about it. This was extremely embarrassing to the Bush administration. There are many other things that he published, but this is the heart of what he published. He made his way. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in northern virginia that's the government's favorite

place to indict people who are not in the united states at the time of the indictment because for some strange reason the government rarely loses cases tried in alexandria virginia um he made his way to london he lived in the london you probably know this story he lived in the um ecuadorian embassy in lond London for seven years. Eventually, he was arrested by British authorities on an extradition warrant by the United States. So the issue is, should he be extradited to the United States? In my opinion, he absolutely should not be. The CIA planned to kill him.

And the government of Great Britain is going to extradite him to the United States, that is just plain wrong. And revealing the truth, an awful, painful truth about what the government has done is not only not a crime, it's a public service. The first judge to hear the case ruled that he was not a candidate for extradition because harm would come to him in the United States. That was appealed to a two-judge panel early this morning, New York time. The two judges ruled that he can be extradited. He has two more appeals left in Great Britain, and I'm sure he will file both. I wish him well. I can't wait till he gets a ticker tape parade. Judge Napolitano

with what's on my mind. Have a great week.