A New York court has ruled that UC Global and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) violated the constitutional rights and privacy of US citizens when they met with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Four U.S. citizens – two lawyers and two journalists – had sued former CIA director Mike Pompeo, the CIA and David Morales, a former special forces soldier in the Spanish military who owned a Spanish surveillance company tasked with security at the Ecuadorian embassy London.
In his decision, Judge John G. Koeltl recognized the violation of the plaintiffs' rights by UC Global employees who unlawfully photographed passwords and cell phone contents when the four plaintiffs visited Assange at the embassy. However, the judge also ruled that UC Global's recordings of conversations and passport photos at the embassy were not illegal because “there was no expectation of privacy.” [by the plaintiffs] in this embassy,” which is considered a public place.
The ruling is a victory for the plaintiffs and represents a challenge for the CIA, as the plaintiffs will now seek full release of CIA documentation related to the covert operation through the legal disclosure process. A 2019 investigation by EL PAÍS uncovered audio and video recordings, emails and documents relating to UC Global's illegal activities, which were later submitted as evidence by the plaintiffs. The judge ruled that the plaintiffs had presented “sufficient evidence” that Morales acted as an agent or collaborator of the CIA under Mike Pompeo (who also served as Trump’s secretary of state). The judge denied the defendants' motions to dismiss the entire lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed in August 2021 by attorneys Margaret Ratner Kunstler and Deborah Hrbek, as well as John Goetz and Charles Glass, journalists specializing in national security issues. All four were among the many visitors Julian Assange received while living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition. According to the lawsuit, more than 100 U.S. citizens, including Assange's lawyers and doctors, were subjected to CIA-ordered surveillance during Pompeo's time in office. The New York judge's ruling was based in part on statements by Pompeo in which he identified Assange and Wikileaks as targets of a long-running CIA campaign.
EL PAÍS's 2019 investigation found that UC Global was paid by the CIA to spy on Assange's conversations with his lawyers and associates as they prepared to fight an extradition request to keep him in the US on charges of disclosing classified information could be accused of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A few weeks after our report, Spanish police arrested UC Global owner and director David Morales. The former soldier was released on bail shortly afterwards and is being investigated in Spain for alleged crimes relating to privacy, confidentiality of communications between lawyer and client, embezzlement, bribery and money laundering.
Microphones in bathrooms
UC Global's spying on Assange began in December 2017. Morales ordered his team to install video cameras with microphones in the Ecuadorian embassy, as well as listening devices on fire extinguishers and in his lawyers' ladies' room. Morales instructed his technicians to set up three streaming channels so that the cameras could be monitored in real time. Emails Morales sent to his staff called for “one channel for Ecuador, one for us and one for X.” [the U.S.].” These separate feeds prevented Ecuadorian security personnel from discovering American surveillance.
The information collected from each visit to Assange was sent to a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain. Hundreds of visitor profiles have been created, computerized and archived, including reports, videos, audios and detailed visitor information. UC Global employees and other protected witnesses claim that the CIA had access to this server. Folders marked “CIA” were found on Morales' laptop, but the Spanish judicial police ignored this finding in judge Santiago Pedraz's investigation.
Morales also instructed the UC Global team at the embassy to install special stickers that eliminate window vibrations to improve the quality of audio recordings in rooms frequently used by Assange. The UC Global team, listening from outside the embassy, used sophisticated window-piercing laser microphones allegedly supplied by the CIA.
Surveillance of Assange intensified due to suspicions that in 2017 he wanted to leave the embassy with Ecuadorian diplomatic status (Assange and his lawyers deny this) and travel to Geneva, Switzerland. Other Assange visitors spied on at the embassy include Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who first reported Edward Snowden's stolen documents that exposed the National Security Agency's massive phone surveillance program. UC Global photographed Greenwald's Russian visa and cell phone contents when he visited Assange.
One of Morales' clients was Sheldon Adelson, a well-known gambling magnate and owner of the Las Vegas Sands casino and resort. The late Adelson was considered a friend of former President Trump and a major donor to the Republican Party. Morales ensured the safety of Adelson's yacht during his travels in the Mediterranean.
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