In a vital election yr within the US that Biden is framing as an existential combat for the soul of US democracy, the continued pursuit of Assange was as inconsistent because it was finally untenable. Considered from the surface, it appeared the case was inflicting the Biden administration worldwide embarrassment.
Biden has been cautious to take care of an acceptable distance between the presidency and the Division of Justice. He got here into workplace promising to revive religion within the rule of legislation following the Trump years, and has meticulously prevented any look of interference within the division’s work because it has investigated and indicted his predecessor.
Assange’s case, nevertheless, is wholly completely different to the fees on which Trump has been indicted. It’s actually potential to interpret Biden’s remark that he was “contemplating” dropping the fees as a delicate public rebuke of the Division of Justice’s pursuit of the case, given its international implications for a free press.
BROADER IMPLICATIONS ON AUSTRALIA-US TIES
The continued pursuit of Assange was additionally turning into problematic within the context of Australia’s alliance with the US. That relationship is at all times described as one based mostly on shared democratic values, in distinction to what Biden has repeatedly framed because the coercive and repressive instincts of “authoritarian” powers.
The choice by the US to pursue a citizen of certainly one of its closest allies for the publication of data, whereas concurrently condemning authoritarian states for doing a lot the identical, was each hypocritical and damaging to American standing on this planet.
Within the context of rising concern in Australia concerning the phrases of the AUKUS submarine deal and the Australian authorities’s willingness to go “all-in” with the US militarily, the continued pursuit of Assange appeared that Australia’s most necessary safety ally didn’t take its considerations critically. Australia appeared merely to be snapping at America’s heels.
