The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | June 25th, 2024: Julian Assange Walks Free & International Arrest Warrants Mount Against Russia

Episode Date: June 25, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:    After a 14 year legal fight with authorities in Britian and the U.S., WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has struck a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice that will set him free and allow him to return to his home country of Australia. The International Criminal Court is ramping up the diplomatic pressure on Russia for their actions in Ukraine, issuing international arrest warrants for two senior military officials in Moscow. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin.  Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get your day off to a great start. Pour yourself a cup of the most excellent Blackout Coffee. It's a great American family-owned business. Premium coffee, fresh-roasted, and shipped out within 48 hours of roasting. Go to blackout coffee.com, promo code PDB, for 20% off your first-time purchase. It's Tuesday, 25 June. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world's stage.

Let's get briefed. First, after a late... lengthy detention in a British prison, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will plead guilty to violating U.S. espionage law in a deal that will set him free. Also, the International Criminal Court, the ICC, is ramping up the diplomatic pressure on Russia, is it really diplomatic pressure on Russia for their actions in Ukraine, issuing international arrest warrants for two senior military officials in Moscow. Now, you have to admit, it is cute how the ICC and the UN, to be fair, seem to think that anyone pays attention to their various admonitions,

their harshly worded memos, and their declarations of indignation. But first, our afternoon spotlight. After a 14-year legal fight with authorities in Britain and the U.S., WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as struck a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice that will set him free and allow him to return to his home country of Australia. The 52-year-old Australian citizen was released from the UK's Belmarsh Maximum Security Jail in the early hours of Monday and is currently traveling to the Pacific Island of Saipan. And frankly, when was the last time you heard someone mention Saipan? Once on the island, Assange will plead guilty on Wednesday in a U.S. district court to a single criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defense documents, and that's according to a report from Reuters.

He's been battling extradition to the U.S. for several years, where he faced 18 criminal charges related to the activity of WikiLeaks. Under the deal made with U.S. authorities, Assange will be sentenced to 62 months of time already served, officially wrapping up his legal problems with both the U.S. and the British governments. As part of the deal, the U.S. government agreed to hold the hearing in the Pacific Islands, as Assange had been adamant that he wished to avoid stepping on U.S. soil. In a statement on X, Wikileaks said, quote, this is the result of a global campaign that spanned grassroots organizers, press freedom campaigners, legislators, and leaders from across the political spectrum. Wikileaks published groundbreaking stories of government corruption and human rights abuses,

holding the powerful accountable for their actions. Their quote continues, as editor-in-chief, Julian paid severely for these principles and for the people's right to know, end quote. Now, the end of the Assange saga is seen as a major victory by free press advocates who have long been fighting for his release. They claim he was acting as an independent journalist publishing materials passed along to him that exposed government abuses. As a citizen of Australia, they also argued that the U.S. had no jurisdiction to prosecute him for releasing classified documents. The U.S. government, on their side, has long argued that Assange's actions were reckless and that his publishing a classified documents directly put the lives of U.S. service members, Intel assets, and others at risk.

Former Vice President Mike Pence said in the statement on X, quote, Julie Nassarge endangered the lives of our troops in a time of war and should have been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The Biden administration's plea deal with Assange is a miscarriage of justice and dishonors the service and sacrifice of the men and women of our armed forces and their families, end quote. If you'll recall, Assange first exploded onto the public scene, along with his organization WikiLeaks, back in 2010, after releasing some 700,000 classified U.S. military documents and diplomatic cables related to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The release was made with the assistance of Chelsea Manning, who, when engaging in the theft of classified documents,

was known as Bradley Manning. Manning was a military intelligence analyst, who was later sent to, to 35 years in a military prison before having his or her or their sentence commuted by President Obama in 2017. WikiLeaks also played a major role in the 2016 presidential election after releasing tens of thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee. Assange was first arrested in the UK in 2010 under a European arrest warrant related to sex crime allegations in Sweden. Asage took refuge in Ecuador's embassy in London. and remained inside for seven years, making it the world's longest Airbnb stay. While the case in Sweden was eventually dropped, British authorities arrested Assange in 2019

on the steps of the Ecuadorian embassy after they revoked his asylum status. Ever since, he's been fighting extradition to the U.S. For their part, the Biden administration claimed on Monday that it was an independent decision by the Department of Justice and that there was absolutely no White House involvement. the White House made that claim in a blatant effort to not be seen as responsible for anything. If all goes as planned, Assange will officially walk free on Wednesday, settling back with family in Australia. All right, coming up after the break, the international criminal court, the ICC, has issued

international arrest warrants for two senior military officials in Moscow as they ramp up the diplomatic pressure on Russia for their actions in Ukraine. And soon enough, the only folks not facing arrest warrants from the ICC, will be you and me. And even that's not a given. I'll be right back. Welcome back to the afternoon bulletin. The International Criminal Court has ramped up pressure, supposedly, on Russia by issuing arrest warrants for two senior military officials, former defense minister Sergei Shogu, and chief of staff General Valerie Erasmov. The warrants alleged that the pair committed crimes against humanity by attacking Ukrainian civilian targets. The warrants focus on the

the Russian military's targeting of Ukrainian civilian infrastructure under the command of Shogu and Erasmol. In particular, the warrants call out persistent missile strikes targeting the country's electric grid from October 2022 through March 23, and to be fair, that does seem a bit lenient, given that Putin's military continues to this day to attack Ukrainian energy infrastructure, so they could have tacked on a few more months, I suppose, to the warrants. The ICC's statement highlights the devastating impact of Russia's military campaign under Shogu and Yorazimov's leadership. Thousands of lives have been lost and large portions of Ukraine's vital infrastructure, well, frankly, lie in ruins. Despite mounting evidence that Russia is targeting civilians,

Moscow continues to insist with a straight face, mind you, that Russia only targets military facilities. But apparently, while the ICC isn't buying it, alleging that Russian armed forces frequently strike civilian structures, as part of official state policy. They further argue that even if some targets were considered military, the expected civilian casualties and damage far outweighed any potential military benefit. Now, the announcement was welcomed by Ukrainian officials, as you might imagine. President Zelenskyy said the decision shows that, quote,

no military rank or cabinet door can shield Russian criminals from accountability. However, we shouldn't expect Shogu or Erasmov to answer these charges anytime soon. Russia's Security Council has responded to the warrants today, dismissing them as, quote, null and void. In a statement run by Russian news agencies, the council said, quote, that is empty talk, considering that the ICC's jurisdiction does not include Russia and the decision has been made as part of the West's hybrid warfare against our country, end quote. So Russia, like the United States, is not actually a member of the International Criminal Court. This isn't the first time that Russian officials have been the subjects of ICC warrants. The International Court issued one against President Putin last year,

accusing the leader of being personally responsible for child kidnappings in Ukraine, which makes it sound like Putin himself is driving the windowless van loaded with puppies and skittles. Maybe so, we do live in strange times. So while Shogu and Yasmov aren't likely to be seen sitting in the dock and the hague anytime soon, meaning, well, they won't be in the dock in the Hague at all, it will impact their ability to travel abroad. Luckily, there's always playdates in Pyongyang, which actually was the name of a somewhat lackluster 1980s rom-com musical.

I believe the full title was Pyongyang Play Date. Kim Jong-un made a brief cameo appearance as a backup dancer for one of the featured boy bands. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Tuesday, 25 June. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at PDB at thefirstTV.com. If you want to listen to the show ad-free, be sure to check out our premium membership at PDB premium.com. And remember, there is the extended weekend version of the PDB. That's the PDB Situation Report.

New episodes launch every Friday at 10 p.m. Eastern on the First TV. And, of course, it's also available on all major podcast platforms and our YouTube channel, Nat President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker. I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool.