Journalists, Assange Lawyers Sue CIA for Allegedly Spying on Them

A suit brought in US Federal Court in New York by two lawyers for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and two American journalists claims the CIA seized their data unlawfully.

The legal action also names the agency's former director, Mike Pompeo, and claims the surveillance occurred when they visited Assange at Ecuador's embassy in London.

The lawyers, Margaret Kunstler and Deborah Hrbek, and journalists Charles Glass and John Goetz, allege that Pompeo violated their privacy rights as the CIA is prohibited from gathering intelligence on American citizens.

“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,” said Richard Roth, the lead attorney representing the plaintiffs, reported Reuters and other media outlets.

“This was outrageous and inappropriate conduct by the government,” added Roth. “It violated the most profound privacy rights” of the plaintiffs and others, including doctors who visited Assange in the embassy, he said.

The CIA has declined to comment on the allegations although some members of Congress have also said that the agency keeps a secret cache of communications data on US citizens which would be a breach of the law.

Assange is fighting extradition to the US where faces 18 charges, including 17 under the controversial Espionage Act. The charges arise from WikiLeaks publications, some of which were based on leaks from whistleblower Chelsea Manning and threw a critical light onto US military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The suit details how journalists and lawyers were required to turn over their mobile phones and other electronic devices to Undercover Global, one of several private security companies which provided security to the Ecuadorian embassy during the time Assange was resident there.

It is claimed that the company copied information on those devices and provided it to the CIA, which was then under the direction of Mike Pompeo, who later served as the US Secretary of State.

Assange was “a legitimate foreign intelligence target,” Tim Edgar, a Professor at Brown University and formerly the Deputy Privacy and Civil Liberties Officer for the Office of Director of National Intelligence told Newsweek – but he agreed that copying content goes too far.

“That seems to me like a very excessive amount of collection. What's the expected intelligence value from that? It's a high bar to justify.

“It's another example of how intrusive intelligence collection has become in the Digital Age,” noting intelligence agency guidelines were established in the 1970s “before we put our whole lives on our phones.”

Assange spent seven years in the embassy before being arrested and jailed in 2019. His supporters argue that, if extradited and put on trial, Assange’s experience will set a precedent that would put reporters anywhere in jeopardy.