The plaintiffs include journalists Charles Glass and John Goetz and lawyers Margaret Kunsler and Deborah Harbeck, who represented the founder of WikiLeaks.
The plaintiffs include journalists Charles Glass and John Goetz and lawyers Margaret Kunsler and Deborah Harbeck, who represented the founder of WikiLeaks.
for lawyers WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange On August 15, the US Central Intelligence Agency and its former director Mike Pompeo were sued, alleging that it recorded their conversations and copied data from their phones and computers.
The lawyer, two journalists also attending the trial, are American and allege that the CIA violated its US constitutional protections by having confidential discussions with Assange, who is Australian.
He said the CIA worked with a security firm contracted by the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where Mr Assange was living at the time, to spy on the WikiLeaks founder, his lawyers, journalists and others.
Mr Assange is facing extradition from the UK to the USWhere he is accused of publishing US military and diplomatic files related to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars in 2010.
Robert Boyle, a New York-based lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the trial, said the alleged spying of Mr Assange’s lawyers meant the WikiLeaks founder’s right to a fair trial “is now tainted, if not destroyed.”
“Recording of meetings with friends, copying of digital information with lawyers and of their lawyers and friends stigmatizes criminal prosecution because the government now knows the contents of those communications,” Mr Boyle told reporters.
“There should be a ban, up to the dismissal of these charges or the withdrawal of an extradition request in response to these clearly unconstitutional activities,” he said.
The lawsuit was filed by attorneys Margaret Ratner Kunsler and Deborah Harbeck, and journalists Charles Glass and John Goetz.
They had all visited Mr. Assange since he was living under political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
The CIA, former CIA director and former US Secretary of State Pompeo, and security firm Undercover Global and its chief executive David Morales Guillen were named in the lawsuit.
It said Undercover Global, which had a security contract with the embassy, rotated and provided information on its electronic equipment, including communications with Assange, to the CIA.
In addition it installed microphones around the embassy and sent recordings, as well as footage from security cameras, to the CIA.
This, the lawyers said, violated privacy protections for US citizens.
Mr Assange is awaiting a decision on his appeal of a British extradition order to the United States. The charges against him under the US Espionage Act could carry up to 175 years in prison.