question: What exactly did Julian Assange do, why did he choose to hide in the embassy instead of prison and why did Ecuador offer him asylum?
comment: Assange ran an organization named Wikileaks committed to public disclosure of proprietary and/or classified information. His philosophy behind this was vaguely described as "the Public has the right to know what the Powerful in industry or government are doing." Alas, this is a crime in many countries. It's not, in the US, so that's not the crime that got him in trouble. To facilitate Wikileaks, he was helping some potential leakers (who are committing crimes in the US). One leaker in particular, Bradley/Chelsea Manning, used Assange's help to steal millions of classified US government messages about the war in Afghanistan. These stolen messages were published by Wikileaks. In addition, he was accused of a sex crime in Sweden, and sought asylum to prevent extradition on this charge. Ecuador agreed to grant him asylum as the charge seemed dubious and was possibly trumped up to give an excuse to extradite him to the US for his Wikileaks dealings. The sex charge was ultimately dropped, but he couldn't just leave the embassy, as there was a high likelihood the UK would arrest and extradite him. Eventually elections in Ecuador brought in a new government, and they decided to revoke his asylum and let Scotland Yard have him.
passages: BULLET::::- "The Yes Men Are Revolting" (2014)
  
  BULLET::::- "Terminal F/Chasing Edward Snowden" (2015)
  
  BULLET::::- "Asylum" (2016)
  
  BULLET::::- "Risk" (2016)
  
  BULLET::::- "Architects of Denial" (2017)
  
  BULLET::::- "The New Radical" (2017)
  
  Section::::See also.
  
  BULLET::::- Courage Foundation
  
  BULLET::::- List of people who took refuge in a diplomatic mission
  
  BULLET::::- Timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections
  
  BULLET::::- Timeline of investigations into Trump and Russia (2019)
  
  BULLET::::- Lauri Love, who in 2018 won an appeal in the High Court of England against extradition to the United States
   Section::::Arrest by the Metropolitan Police.
  
  After Assange's asylum was revoked, the Ambassador of Ecuador to the UK invited the Metropolitan Police into the embassy on 11 April 2019. Following this invitation, Assange was arrested and taken to a central London police station. Assange was carrying Gore Vidal's "History of the National Security State" during his arrest. The news of the arrest went viral on Twitter and Facebook within minutes of its happening and several media outlets reported it as breaking news. President Moreno is quoted to have referred to Assange as a "spoiled brat" in the wake of the arrest.
   On 16 August 2012, police and protesters gathered outside the embassy, with reports of minor scuffles between the two groups and arrests of some of the protesters. On 19 August 2012, Assange made a speech from a low balcony of the embassy. Assange's remarks were prefaced by a statement from Baltasar Garzón, who is heading his legal team. This was followed by protests in Ecuador outside the British embassy in Quito, as well as support for Correa's approval of the asylum request.
   Ecuadorean president Lenín Moreno said in a video posted on Twitter that he "requested Great Britain to guarantee that Mr Assange would not be extradited to a country where he could face torture or the death penalty. The British government has confirmed it in writing, in accordance with its own rules." On 14 April 2019, however, Moreno stated in an interview with the British newspaper "The Guardian" that no other nation influenced his government's decision to revoke Assange's asylum in the embassy and that Assange did in fact use facilities in the embassy "to interfere in processes of other states." Moreno also stated "we can not allow our house, the house that opened its doors, to become a centre for spying" and noted that Assange also had poor hygiene. Moreno further stated "We never tried to expel Assange, as some political actors want everyone to believe. Given the constant violations of protocols and threats, political asylum became untenable." On 11 April 2019, Moreno described Assange as a "bad mannered" guest who physically assaulted embassy security guards.
   Section::::Asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy.:Withdrawal of asylum and arrest.
   In June, René had a surprise encounter with Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, an asylee for two years at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. They not only had several days of conversations, but during the second day that Residente was in London, they had a Twitcam through his official account @Residente that was translated and uploaded to the @WikiLeaks Twitter account while it was being transmitted live from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
   Hours after Assange's arrest, programmer Ola Bini was arrested (but not charged) in Ecuador and interrogated about an alleged plot by unnamed Russian hackers to release compromising information about Moreno in retaliation. The coder had previously met with Assange at the embassy, posted a link to a news article about the plot to Twitter, describing it as a "witch hunt", before leaving on a trip to Japan.
   Section::::Performance in the public service in Ecuador.:Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Integration.:Diplomatic asylum to Julian Assange.
  
  On 19 June 2012, the creator of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, appeared at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in order to request diplomatic protection to the Ecuadorian State. He based his request on his fear that the United Kingdom would extradite him to Sweden, the country that wants to interrogate him on alleged sex crimes, and that from that country he could be further extradited to the United States, where he affirms his life is at risk.
   For almost seven years the embassy was famously home to the Australian activist and journalist Julian Assange, who initially entered on 19 June 2012 claiming diplomatic asylum, which was granted by the Ecuadorian government on 16 August 2012. He had absconded in breach of bail after dismissal of his appeal by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.
  
  Section::::Functions.
   Special counsel Robert Mueller's team had been investigating a meeting between former Donald Trump's campaign chairman Paul Manafort and President Lenín Moreno in Quito in 2017. Moreno talked with Manafort about removing Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and his extradition to the United States.
  
  On 28 March 2018, Ecuador cut Assange's Internet connection at its London embassy "to prevent any potential harm". Officials said that Assange's recent social media posts denouncing the arrest of a Catalonian separatist leader "put at risk" Ecuador's relations with European nations. Assange then went silent on social media.
   At the urging of the FBI, the Australian Federal Police set up a special taskforce to catch them. But at a time when most Australian police had never seen a computer, let alone used one, they had to figure out just where to begin.
  
  Police ingenuity and old-fashioned detective work are pitted against nimble, highly skilled young men in this new crime frontier. What follows is a game of cat and mouse through the electronic underground of Melbourne.
  
  Section::::Cast.
  
  BULLET::::- Rachel Griffiths – Christine Assange
  
  BULLET::::- Anthony LaPaglia – Detective Ken Roberts
  
  BULLET::::- Alex Williams – Julian Assange
   Number 5: Which has resulted in the greatest number of deaths: lying us into war or Wikileaks revelations or the release of the Pentagon Papers? Number 6: If Assange can be convicted of a crime for publishing information that he did not steal, what does this say about the future of the first amendment and the independence of the internet?
  
  Regarding the accusations of treason, he has called the desire to charge Assange, an Australian citizen, for treason "wild,", but also asks the general question:
   Filmed in and around Melbourne, the film was written and directed by Robert Connolly and produced by Matchbox Pictures' Helen Bowden, with Tony Ayres and Rick Maier serving as Executive Producers.
  
  Section::::Synopsis.
  
  In 1989, known as 'Mendax', Assange and two friends formed a group called the 'International Subversives'. Using early home computers and defining themselves as 'white hat hackers' – those who look but don't steal – they broke into some of the world's most powerful and secretive organisations. They were young, brilliant, and in the eyes of the US Government, a major threat to national security.
   Section::::Breaching bail and political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy.
  
  On 19 June 2012, the Ecuadorian foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño, announced that Assange had applied for political asylum, that his government was considering the request, and that Assange was at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
  
  Assange breached bail conditions by staying in the embassy and faced arrest if he left. Assange's supporters, including journalist Jemima Goldsmith, journalist John Pilger, and film-maker Ken Loach, forfeited £293,500 in bail and sureties. Goldsmith said she was surprised at his asylum bid and expected him to face the Swedish allegations.
   In November 2018, Pamela Anderson, a close friend and regular visitor of Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy, gave an interview with "60 Minutes" in Australia in which she asked the Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, to "defend your friend, and get Julian his passport back, and take him back to Australia and be proud of him". Morrison rejected the request but his response was described as "smutty" and "lewd" by Anderson who wrote in an open letter to Morrison that "[y]ou trivialised and laughed about the suffering of an Australian and his family. You followed it with smutty, unnecessary comments about a woman voicing her political opinion." She further advised Morrison that "[r]ather than making lewd suggestions about me, perhaps you should instead think about what you are going to say to millions of Australians when one of their own is marched in an orange jumpsuit to Guantanamo Bay – for publishing the truth. You can prevent this."
   The co-founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, was a resident of the embassy for seven years after entering it on 19 June 2012 to claim diplomatic asylum after being wanted by Swedish authorities for questioning over four alleged sexual offences. Assange's asylum request was eventually granted by the Ecuadorian government in August 2012. The Swedish prosecutors dropped their investigation in May 2017, claiming they could not expect the Ecuadorian Embassy to communicate reliably with Assange with respect to the case.
   Independent United Nations rights experts such as Agnes Callamard said "the arrest of Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange by police in the United Kingdom, after the Ecuadorian Government decided to stop granting him asylum in their London embassy, exposed him to the risk of serious human rights violations, if extradited to the United States".
  
  The yellow vests movement called for Assange's release.
  
  Section::::Extradition hearings.
   Assange was arrested in April after being pushed out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had been living since 2012, avoiding an international arrest warrant, was sentenced to 50 weeks in prison by a British judge on 1st May 2019.
  
  Judge Deborah Taylor said Assange's time in the embassy had cost British taxpayers the equivalent of nearly $21 million, and that he had sought asylum in a "deliberate attempt to delay justice."
   Assange's book, "When Google Met WikiLeaks", was published by OR Books on 18 September 2014. The book recounts when Google CEO Eric Schmidt requested a meeting with Assange, while he was on bail in rural Norfolk, UK. Schmidt was accompanied by Jared Cohen, director of Google Ideas; Lisa Shields, vice-president of the Council on Foreign Relations; and Scott Malcomson, the communications director for the International Crisis Group. Excerpts were published on the "Newsweek" website, while Assange participated in a Q&A event that was facilitated by the Reddit website and agreed to an interview with "Vogue" magazine.
   BULLET::::- March 5: In a "Meet the Press" interview, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper states that, while he was in office, the NSA, FBI, and CIA had found no evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. On May 12 he clarifies his statement, saying that he wouldn't have known the contents of an FBI investigation.
  
  BULLET::::- March 9:
  
  BULLET::::- Nigel Farage visits Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Confronted as he leaves, Farage tells "BuzzFeed News" that "he [can't] remember what he had been doing in the building".
   Julian Assange, was allegedly investigated by the Eastern District of Virginia grand jury for computer-related crimes committed in the U.S. in 2012. His request for asylum was granted and he remained a resident in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012. In 2019, an indictment from 2017 was made public following the termination of his asylum status and the subsequent arrest by the Metropolitan Police of UK in London. According to the indictment, Assange was accused of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion in order to help Chelsea Manning gain access to privileged information which he intended to publish on Wikileaks. This is a less serious charge in comparison to those leveled against Manning, and carries a maximum sentence of five years with a possibility of parole.
   One of the writers of the series Thom Phipps once called for the police to publicly shoot the Wikileaks founder in the head. On the day Julian Assange was given political asylum, by the government of Ecuador, Phipps twitted: 'If the met [police] want to regain my trust they should drag Assange out the embassy + shoot him in the back of th head in the middle of traf square.' A complaint was lodged with the BBC over its decision to employ Phipps on the basis that he 'advocated for the public extrajudicial assassination' of the Wikileaks founder. The BBC's response was that: 'Unfortunately Mr Philip's [sic] is not a BBC member of staff and is not representing the BBC. Therefore we will not be commenting on Twitter posts made by third parties.' 
   Finally, Ecuador addressed a communication to the Government of the United States in order to officially get to know its position on the Assange case. Consultations revolved around enquiring if a legal proceeding against Julian Assange and/or the creators of WikiLeaks was taking place, or if there was any intention of doing so; what kind of laws, which conditions, and maximum penalties these people would be subjected to; and if there was any intention of requesting Julian Assange’s extradition to the United States. Its response was that it could not provide information on the matter, alleging it was a bilateral issue between Ecuador and the United Kingdom.
   On 21 July 2018, Glenn Greenwald reported that the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry was finalising an agreement to release Assange into the custody of the British government. In a press conference the following week, President Lenín Moreno confirmed that he wanted Assange out of the embassy but also "for his life not to be in danger". This prompted wide speculation that Moreno aimed to strengthen Ecuador's relations with the United States and assist their extradition efforts.
   In 2010, Assange was contacted by Chelsea Manning, who gave him classified information containing various military operations conducted by the US government abroad. The material included the Baghdad airstrike of 2007, Granai Airstrike of 2009, the Iraq War Logs, Afghan War Diaries, and the Afghan War Logs, among others. Part of these documents were published by Wikileaks and leaked to other major media houses including "The Guardian" between 2010 and 2011.
  