By John Letzing, Peter Kenny and Alistair Barr
GENEVA--WikiLeaks said Monday the whistleblower website is
demanding answers from Google Inc. about why the Internet search
company appears to have handed WikiLeaks staff members' personal
data to U.S. law enforcement nearly three years ago.
At a news conference held in Geneva, Judge Baltasar Garzón, the
director of a legal team representing WikiLeaks founder Julian
Assange, said three members of the WikiLeaks staff were only
informed in December by Google that the U.S.-based company had
provided data from their Google accounts--including the contents of
emails--to federal investigators in 2012.
The data were provided in response to search warrants concerning
espionage and theft that Mr. Garzón said are a part of a continuing
federal criminal probe of WikiLeaks. He argued that the requests
violated the staff members' constitutional rights.
"This action is illegal, and unacceptable," he said.
Mr. Garzón's news conference coincided with a statement
published by WikiLeaks on its website arguing that the warrants
could have been challenged, had the staff members received prior
notice.
"Google handed everything over before that was possible,"
WikiLeaks said.
WikiLeaks acknowledged that Google may have been under a gag
order, which could have prevented the company from warning staff
members before it handed over their data.
Still, some experts said they were troubled by the development.
"We expect at the very least a company like Google would challenge
such an overbroad warrant," said Alex Abdo, an attorney at the
American Civil Liberties Union.
Google said it challenged many orders related to WikiLeaks,
which has led to disclosures to people who are affected. The
company has also pushed to unseal all the documents related to the
investigation, it added.
"Our policy is to tell people about government requests for
their data, except in limited cases, like when we are gagged by a
court order, which sadly happens quite frequently," a Google
spokesman said. "We continue to argue for surveillance reform which
would enable us to be more transparent." The spokesman declined to
comment further.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Justice Department didn't immediately
respond to a request for comment.
In a letter published by WikiLeaks and addressed to Google
Chairman Eric Schmidt, attorneys representing the WikiLeaks staff
members said that, "We are astonished and disturbed that Google
waited over 2 1/2 years to notify its subscribers that a search
warrant was issued for their records."
The letter included a demand for a list of all of the materials
provided by Google, and an explanation of whether or not the
company challenged the government requests.
The letter also included a transcript of a conversation that
WikiLeaks says took place between Messrs. Schmidt and Assange in
April 2011, in which the Google chairman allegedly said he would
convey a request from Mr. Assange to Google's general counsel that
WikiLeaks be informed if Google is asked to fulfill legal requests
for information about its staff. "I'll pass that along," Mr.
Schmidt is quoted as saying.
WikiLeaks described its staff members, Sarah Harrison, Kristinn
Hrafnsson and Joseph Farrell, as journalists and editors. The
organization said in a statement that its journalists don't use
Google to communicate internally or with sources, though the
warrants "represent a substantial invasion of their personal
privacy and freedom."
Mr. Assange has been seeking for years to avoid extradition to
Sweden, where he has been accused of sexual assault, amid concerns
that Swedish officials may hand him over to the U.S. The WikiLeaks
founder has been granted asylum by Ecuador, and has lived in
Ecuador's London embassy since 2012.
Mr. Garzón's news conference was timed to begin after Sweden's
periodic review session at the United Nations Human Rights Council
in Geneva, where the country's recent human-rights record was to be
assessed by fellow members.
Write to John Letzing at john.letzing@wsj.com and Alistair Barr
at alistair.barr@wsj.com
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