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Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson sees Julian Assange at Belmarsh prison

Australian Wikileaks publisher could face more than 100 years in prison

Josh Marcus
San Francisco
Friday 03 November 2023 17:24 EDT
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Extradition of Julian Assange Approved by UK Judge

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Tucker Carlson visited Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in London’s Belmarsh Prison, the former former Fox News anchor announced on social media.

Carlson did not elaborate on the reason for the visit with Assange, who is facing extradition to the US on charges he violated the Espionage Act by publishing leaked classified information on Wikileaks.

It could signal that Assange is a possible guest on the interviewer’s show on X, which has previously featured conversations with Donald Trump, Andrew Tate, and the rapper Ice Cube.

The Wikileaks founder has been in prison since 2019, when he was arrested at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had been taking refuge since 2012 avoiding extradition to Sweden on a since-dropped sexual assault case.

Since being arrested, and since the UK government approved his extradition to the US, Assange has been challenging his status.

In June, a London court denied Assange’s most recent appeal to his extradition order.

If convicted on the 18 counts against him in the US, Assange could face a sentence of more than 100 years in prison.

His case has attracted renewed attention in recent months in Washington.

Last month, US congressman Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, and James McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, urged their colleagues to join a letter calling on the Biden administration to drop the prosecution against the Wikileaks founder.

The letter, obtained by Fox News, said the representatives "strongly encourage the Biden administration to withdraw the US extradition request currently pending against Australian publisher Julian Assange and halt all prosecutorial proceedings against him as soon as possible.”

In September, a multi-party group of former and current Australian officials visited Washington to meet with US officials and rights groups, seeking to stop the extradition process.

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