![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/assange_in_box.jpg\")
<\/a>The unprecedented spectacle of the entire world becoming virtual prisoners in their own homes over the coronavirus pandemic provides an unplanned and unconscious act of solidarity with Wikileaks editor Julian Assange, who has been imprisoned in the high-security Belmarsh Prison in London since last April.<\/span><\/p>\nIf there is such thing as divine retribution in this materially obsessed world, perhaps the outbreak of COVID-19, as the viral disease has been labeled, could just be it. The global contagion offers the citizens of the world an opportunity to take pause from washing their hands and buying toilet paper to, just maybe, reflect upon the trials and tribulations that have haunted Julian Assange ever since he first sought refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012.<\/span><\/p>\n For the uninitiated, Assange had made himself a marked man back in 2010 when he unloaded a deluge of damaging US government records, particularly the Collateral Murder video (April 2010), the Afghanistan War Logs (July 2010) and Cablegate (November 2010). Today, the Trump administration is fighting hard for his extradition to the US where he faces charges under the Espionage Act for purportedly helping US Army intelligence officer Chelsea Manning hack the incriminating data. If found guilty, the Australian native could face a 175-year prison sentence.<\/span><\/p>\n For those individuals, however, who have been following the behind-the-scenes saga between the Democrats and the Trump administration, they better understand that the real reason for Trump wanting Assange back in the US might just have a lot more to do with Russiagate and the hacked cables from the Democratic National Committee in 2016 than anything else. Indeed, Assange, 48, seems to have become an unwitting pawn in a momentous power struggle \u2013 a full-blown civil war, albeit without the battlefields and musket shot \u2013 now playing out in the United States. As November draws closer, it will only get worse.<\/span><\/p>\n At a time when the American people have other things on their minds, first and foremost the coronavirus, many have forgotten or never knew that Trump\u2019s attorney general, William Barr, has been busy for the last year investigating the origins of the Russia-collusion story, which has harassed Trump ever since he set foot in office. Key to that injurious charge is the Democrats\u2019 claim that Russia provided WikiLeaks with emails \u201chacked\u201d from DNC computers. There\u2019s just one problem with that story. Assange has categorically denied it.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOur source is not a state party,\u201d Assange told<\/strong><\/span><\/a> Fox anchor Sean Hannity in an interview inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. \u201cSo the answer \u2013 for our interactions \u2013 is no.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n So if the Russians were not responsible for hacking the DNC, then who? Who else would have had the opportunity, means and motive for accessing such sensitive information? One name that continues to arise is that of Seth Rich, the former DNC staffer who was gunned down on the streets of Washington in July 2016 in what police believe was a botched robbery.<\/span><\/p>\n Assange has never revealed the identity of its DNC email source, however, but Wikileaks did offer a US$20k reward for information leading to conviction for the murder of the DNC staffer. Meanwhile, Rich\u2019s family has vociferously denied that Seth had any connection to the data release.<\/span><\/p>\n ANNOUNCE: WikiLeaks has decided to issue a US$20k reward for information leading to conviction for the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich.<\/p>\n — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 9, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n