Actually the charges are 49 pages long and go all the way back to conversations from his youth when he was a minor. Your post is a red herring as it is obvious

Actually the charges are 49 pages long and go all the way back to conversations from his youth when he was a minor. Your post is a red herring as it is obvious the prosecution is using more than this one conversation make its case. And he is being charged with much more than conspiracy to intrude into govt computer systems so again your post is way too narrow. For me personally, HN has failed to show how this case is uniquely more perverse than the run of the mill "he stole a pencil when he was a youth" vs "he talked about reading generals' emails at 17" (for Assange) - it's the norm in the US legal system. Is this the first case that awakened HN to how unjust our legal system is? I can't help but feel that is where most of the outrage comes from. Not the specifics of this case, which look terrible for Assange (not saying it's his fault they look terrible but they do). Protestors are being charged with a possible sentence of 6 mo to 99 years right now. That kind of discretion and ambiguity is disgusting but it is a feature. They can get Assange for anything just like an "hacker" could be jailed for bypassing an API. I'm sorry but the legal system and our laws are unjust. But don't channel everything through Assange and make it seem like this is anything new. They have him in their crosshairs, you and I are lucky it's not our turn. Why is it Assange's? Maybe to chill future dissent and fact based journalism, maybe this executive branch has something specific to fear. ----- Wikileaks canary dumps' dencryption keys were never published. In 2016-2017 something happened. Idk why Assange never published them, but it's possible wikileaks was comprised by the US govt early on in the Trump admin or late Obama admin. Maybe someone has more knowledge on this part.