Julian Assange is concerned not about any proceedings in Sweden as such, but believe that his deportation to Sweden could lead to politically motivated deportation to the United States, where he could face severe penalties, up to the death sentence, for his activities related to WikiLeaks. On 16 August 2012, Foreign Minister Patiño announced that Ecuador was granting Assange political asylum because of the threat represented by the United States secret investigation against him and several calls for assassination from many American politicians. In its formal statement, Ecuador reasoned that "as a consequence of [Assange's] determined defense to freedom of expression and
Julian Assange Russian propaganda. Assange was named as a defendant in the April 20, 2018 lawsuit filed by the Democratic National Committee with regard to the hacking of its emails in 2016. The DNC's filing called this a "brazen attack on American democracy", referring to the alleged activities of WikiLeaks and Russian agents together. The WikiLeaks editor in chief Kristinn Hrafnsson stated that "The DNC lawsuit is a litmus test for press freedoms. The suit claims that the scandalous emails of powerful political operatives are 'trade secrets' and cannot be published. If this precedent is set it will be the end of