> It says he tried to crack a hash and didn't succeed and therefore didn't even give Manning anything useful.
The indictment isn't clear whether he succeeded or not. But if you look at the March 10th communication, it's clear that Assange tried to crack the hash. If so, that constitutes an illegal conspiracy.
Say your friend asks you to pick a lock so he can rob someone's house. You try to pick the lock and fail. Even though you haven't robbed the house yet, you're both guilty of conspiracy to rob the house. The attempted lock-picking is an "overt act" that completes the conspiracy: https://www.justia.com/criminal/offenses/inchoate-crimes/con...
> Finally, in most states, conspiracy requires an “overt act” taken in furtherance of the crime. This overt act does not have to be the crime itself, nor does it have to be an act that is illegal. Rather, the act must merely be a step taken in furtherance of the criminal objective, such as buying a weapon or holding a meeting to plan an attack. The act must also take place after the group of individuals has agreed to conspire.
> Say your friend asks you to pick a lock so he can rob someone's house
If you looks at the logs, that is just not what happened. I see various discussions of it that sort of make up a story that isn't there. The actual chat is like this:
Bob> How big is that upload?
Alice> 440MB
Alice> It's a lot of scanned documents
Alice> How's your finances these days?
Alice> Hey are you any good at lock picking?
Bob> Yes [unclear if yes, scanned documents would account for that size, or yes, I'm good at lock picking, or something else]
Bob> Our finances are doing okay, but have trouble with some payments
Bob> We have extensive lock picking knowledge
Alice> [Sends photo of something, not clear what]
Alice> I think this is a lock, but I'm not sure. I pointed the camera at the door and took that photo.
Bob> What makes you think that's a lock?
Bob> Is it attached to a door?
Alice> Yeah
Bob> Sent the photo to someone who knows about locks
Alice> Thanks
[2 days later]
Bob> Any more hints about this picture you sent me?
Bob> No luck so far [not clear if luck with talking to the lock expert, or if the expert couldn't recognize this as a lock, or if tried to crack it... or if didn't send it anywhere at all and just mentioning it because he wants Alice to think he's helping her so that she keeps telling him what's going on]
In my view this is not even close to an overt act and that we can be sure of that given the context of all the other stuff they chat about. I'd expect some discussion of progress and technical details.
[PS. I think this is the third comment of yours I've replied to in this discussion. I don't mean to stalk you. Your points are well articulated even though I disagree with them]
My knowledge on the Assange case is limited (I have not read any leaked documents), but from the press I get the impression that he uncovered illegal acts.
If true, it would be more like this:
A friend sees that an illegal act is committed inside a house and asks you to pick the lock in order to go in and stop it.
Better example, what if a journalist made a copy of a key for you so that you could continue to access a room containing classified documents after hours, as was the case for the pentagon papers?
The indictment isn't clear whether he succeeded or not. But if you look at the March 10th communication, it's clear that Assange tried to crack the hash. If so, that constitutes an illegal conspiracy.
Say your friend asks you to pick a lock so he can rob someone's house. You try to pick the lock and fail. Even though you haven't robbed the house yet, you're both guilty of conspiracy to rob the house. The attempted lock-picking is an "overt act" that completes the conspiracy: https://www.justia.com/criminal/offenses/inchoate-crimes/con...
> Finally, in most states, conspiracy requires an “overt act” taken in furtherance of the crime. This overt act does not have to be the crime itself, nor does it have to be an act that is illegal. Rather, the act must merely be a step taken in furtherance of the criminal objective, such as buying a weapon or holding a meeting to plan an attack. The act must also take place after the group of individuals has agreed to conspire.