Julian Assange, useful idiot and Left-wing dupe, will finally have to answer for his actions

After 2,487 days, Australian super-hacker Julian Assange has been expelled from Ecuador’s Embassy and is finally in the hands of Scotland Yard.

Assange is sought by the US for his role in leaking many thousands of US military and diplomatic documents from 2010. He now faces extradition there.

Of potentially far greater importance to US and Western democracy, however, was Assange’s role in the receipt and online distribution of thousands of hacked emails from Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the leadership of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

This astonishing case should be required reading for any student of politics. It shows how an adversarial state – Russia – attempted to manipulate a major Western election, with the knowing or unknowing support of Left-wing dupes.

These hacks – a virtual Watergate – were part of Robert Mueller’s investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election. Much of that report remains unpublished. Mueller says there was no collusion between Trump and the Kremlin. However, the indictments already published as a result of the investigation do show Kremlin intent to meddle in the election process.

Assange is a key part of it. Wikileaks has been accused of being the primary public mouthpiece through which Russian Military Intelligence, the GRU, attempted to manipulate the election against Clinton. What is not clear is that they knew what they were doing.

The DNC servers were very likely hacked from Spring 2016 onwards by two units, 26165 and 74455, from the GRU. The indictment in the US of 12 Russian intelligence officers by Mueller in July 2018 for their alleged role shows Mueller believes that the evidence of Russian involvement is strong.

Mueller’s indictment states in paragraph 47 that, on or around 14 July 2016, Organisation 1 – believed to be Wikileaks –was sent an email by the GRU conspirators posing as online hacker Guccifer 2.0 which contained an attachment. The attachment explained how to access the online archive of DNC documents. On 18 July, Wikileaks confirmed it had "the 1Gb or so archive" and would release the documents shortly.

On 22 July 2016, Wikileaks began to leak the emails. They did so three days before the Democratic National Convention, in order to maximise the media damage to Hillary Clinton.

In his dealing with the leakers – whoever he thought they were – Assange’s actions were designed to prevent Hillary Clinton from solidifying supporters from Bernie Saunders, her Democrat rival for the presidential nomination. So, for example, in Para 47 (a) of the indictment, Wikileaks warned that unless compromising material were published quickly, Clinton would be able to "solidify bernie [sic] supporters behind her after". The email explained that Trump had only a 25 per cent chance of winning, so conflict between Hillary and Saunders would be "interesting".

Assange has denied that the information he leaked came from Russian government sources, although the Kremlin had been publicly accused on 14 June – over a month before – of hacking the DNC. Yet via the Guccifer 2.0 persona, Assange’s Wikileaks appeared to deal directly with the GRU. The only question is, did Assange do so knowingly?

There is no evidence that he did and, if he did, then why did they hide behind the alias? What is clear though is that, either way, Wikileaks appeared to share not only the general Russian agenda of undermining Clinton and supporting Trump, but also the short-term tactic that summer of undermining Clinton’s effort to unite the Democrats.

It is difficult to suggest that Assange was a neutral player. Assange, for some still a hero of the Left, was a participant in the plot to smear the Democrat challenger to Donald Trump, one of the most toxic presidential candidates in US history.

A second batch of leaks may have been delivered to Assange electronically or in person in September, according to data stamps.

It’s been generally assumed that the primary effect of the hack was to damage the Clinton campaign’s credibility. However, the Democratic data may have been used by the Kremlin to analyse Trump’s campaign and his messaging in order to help him. We still do not know if this allegation has substance.

It’s impossible to tell if the leaks made a material difference to US history. We do know that US intelligence agencies have no doubt that President Putin attempted, using bots, social media and espionage, to influence the 2016 presidential election and Assange allegedly played a critical role as the most effective means for disseminating this information in the West.

Assange still appears unwilling to present his case in court. He has had six years effective house arrest. He has reportedly trashed his accommodation on more than one occasion. It has cost the British taxpayer at least £13.2 million.

Judging by documents, the Ecuadorians initially looked to devise plans to "spring" him. Rooftop escapes were examined, so too were plans for Assange to disappear into the crowds at Harrods or being made Ecuador’s UN Ambassador. A change of Government has brought a change in attitude, especially after Assange allegedly repaid his hosts' generosity by allegedly hacking their servers.

There remain many unanswered questions on Assange which only a court case is likely to expose. Did Assange really not know he was receiving information from the Russian intelligence services? Were persons in London involved?Were they Russian nationals – still unexpelled and living in Britain – or Westerners who could be prosecuted for being part of this extraordinary espionage operation?

As of last year, the US intelligence agencies believed that they had identified a suspect who "couriered" material to Assange. They have yet to name the courier. Now would be a good time to do so. In the two months prior to the leaks Assange received over 80 visitors at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London – I have seen the visitor logs. These included Russian nationals. Did any of them have a role in this affair?

I asked these questions during a Parliamentary debate last June. I did so because of the significance of this issue to the future of our democracy and freedoms. It is highly likely that the Kremlin attempted in 2016 to manipulate the US election, regardless of collusion by Donald Trump’s team. If so, the DNC hack was an important part of one of the most sophisticated, risky and extraordinary espionage operations in history. Assange has been accused of being the leading Western disseminator of the stolen information.

Assange is still seen by some, especially on the Liberal Left, as an Information Warfare hero. He may yet be seen as a "useful idiot" of the Kremlin, or worse, in one of the most ambitious espionage operations mounted against a Western democracy.

Bob Seely in the Member of Parliament for the Isle of Wight and sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee. He tweets at @IoWBobSeely and Instagram bobseelymp