Lawsuit Filed Against CIA, Pompeo Over Alleged Illegal Spying on Assange Allies

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - A lawsuit has been filed against the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and former CIA Director Mike Pompeo for illegally spying on attorneys and journalists who visited with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange when he was at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, court documents showed on Monday.

"Each of the named plaintiffs, and hundreds of others, visited WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange while he was living under political asylum at the Embassy of the government of Ecuador in London, United Kingdom," the complaint said. "Prior to their visits each visitor was required to surrender his or her electronic devices, e.g. smartphones, laptops etc. to employees of Defendant Undercover Global (UC Global)."

UC Global employees copied the information stored on the devices of attorneys and journalists who visited with Assange without their consent, the complaint said. UC Global then provided that information to the CIA, which was headed by Pompeo at the time, the complaint added.

The complaint also said the actions undertaken by the CIA violated the rights of more than a 100 US citizens who visited Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

The complaint said UC Global was contracted by the Ecuadorian government at the embassy from January 2017 to April 2018. During that time, the security firm placed hidden microphones in new cameras and other areas inside the embassy in order to conduct surveillance on Assange and those recordings were also given to the CIA, the complaint said.

The attorneys and journalists who filed the complaint are asking for compensation for violations of their constitutional rights and an order that would prevent the CIA and UC Global from revealing the information seized from their devices to any third party.

On June 17, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel has approved the extradition of WikiLeaks founder to the United States, where he is facing a possible sentence of up to 175 years in prison, on the basis that the move will not breach his fundamental human rights. On July 1, it was reported that Assange has appealed the United Kingdom's decision to extradite him.

WikiLeaks was founded by Assange on October 4, 2006, but rose to prominence in 2010 when it began to publish large-scale leaks of classified government information, especially from the US government. Washington put Assange on the Wanted list on espionage charges after WikiLeaks released thousands of classified documents that shed light on war crimes committed by US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.