| Assange Visitors Sued
Pompeo Now DOJ Moving to Dismiss
But Plaintiff Says Default
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
Book
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Jan 18 – When
jury selection
was completed
for the
retrial of
accused CIA
Vault 7 leaker
Joshua
Schulte, U.S.
District Court
for the
Southern
District of
New York Judge
Jesse M.
Furman told
the jurors, Do
not read or
say anything
about the
case. Inner
City Press was
there, and
live tweeted here.
[July 20 denial
of access here;
Brutal
Kangaroo]
On August 15,
2022 after conviction Schulte,
a group of lawyers and
journalist who visited Julian
Assange in the Ecuador Embassy
in London sued Mike Pompeo for
surveillance in violation of
the US Fourth Amendment. They
held a press
conference, and Inner
City Press asked if they will
seek emergency relief. Not for
now (video here;
Complaint here).
On October 12,
plaintiffs' counsel asked to
adjourn and postpone the
October 17 conference in the
case: "Plaintiffs had
difficulty locating the
accurate addresses for the two
Spanish defendants, David
Morales (“Morales”), a Spanish
citizen, and Undercover Global
S.L. (“UC Global”), a Spanish
corporation."
On January 13,
2023, the US Attorney's Office
wrote to Judge Koetlt
requesting a pre-motion
hearing for them to dismiss
the complaint against Pompeo
and the CIA. DOJ argues
that there is no "Bivens"
remedy available, and states
that "matters intimately
related to foreign policy and
national security are rarely
proper subjects for judicial
intervention."
On January 18,
the plaintiffs responded that
the CIA and Pompeo have
defaulted, and waited until
the last day to filed a letter
for a pre-motion conference.
They note they are not suing
the CIA for money, only an
injunction against sharing
information. They say the
Court will conclude that the
Defaulted Defendants motion to
dismiss should be denied.
On Saturday,
January 14, Judge Koeltl
ordered that "the parties are
directed to appear on January
20, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. (Signed
by Judge John G. Koeltl on
1/13/2023) (jca)
Inner City
Press will stay on this.
Back on October
13, Judge Koeltl pushed the
initial pre-trial conference
back to February 21, 2023:
"ORDER granting [13] Letter
Motion to Adjourn Conference.
Adjourned to Tuesday, February
21, 2023, at 2:30 PM. SO
ORDERED."
On November 29
Morales' and UC Global's
lawyer filed a denial full of
misspellings, such as pointing
to Wikipedia to state that
"purpouse [sp] far from acting
as journalistic information
whose sole purpose is dissent
and media manipulation in
order to influence public
opinion with the clear
intention of destabilizing the
interests of Western
countries," etc.
On December 8,
Judge Koeltl ruled starting
" ORDER: The plaintiffs
in this action have served all
four of the defendants. See
ECF Nos. 15-19. For two of
those defendants, the Central
Intelligence Agency ("CIA")
and Michael R. Pompeo, the
deadlines to answer were
November 9, 2022, and November
18, 2022, respectively. To
date, neither of those
defendants has answered or
otherwise responded to the
complaint. The time for these
two defendants to answer is
extended-" full Order on
Patreon here.
And this: "NOTICE
OF APPEARANCE by Jean-David
Barnea on behalf of Central
Intelligence Agency, Michael
R. Pompeo..(Barnea,
Jean-David)."
Inner City
Press will continue to cover
the case.
Back in August,
Inner City Press immediately
asked the United Nations, from
which it remains banned,
"What are the comments and
actions if any of SG Antonio
Guterres on lawsuit filed Aug
15, 2022 in SDNY alleging that
lawyers and journalists visting
Assange in the Ecuadorian
Embassy in London were spied
on?" No answer.
On August 16, the case was
assigned to SDNY District Judge
John G. Koeltl, of whom Inner
City Press has so far reported
on 223 cases. It will report on
this one. There was an earlier
notice: "info for these parties
has been modified: Margaret
Ratner Kunstler, Deborah Hrbek,
John Goetz, Charles Glass, CIA,
Michael R. Pompeo, David Morales
Guillen, Undercover Global
S.L.," tweeted here.
It is Kunstler, et al. v.
Central Intelligence Agency, et
al., 22-cv-6913 (Koeltl)
***
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