Extradition September hearing day Day 13 (15 with 2 lost Covid days)

Joined the video link.

I believe the only remains medical witness is Paul Mullen, Emeritus Professor at Melbourne’s Monash University. He was JA’s consulting psychiatrist in Australia & diagnosed..

... him with clinical depression in 1995.

The other witness scheduled for today is computer forensics expert, Patrick Eller.

His report reviews evidence from Chelsea Manning’s court martial.

Summers is back after being unwell yesterday. JA entering. Split screen as the next witness will be on video.

Julian is wearing a suit and tie every day

Summers says at 11.30 last night they received the cross examination bundle from the Prosecution. JA has not reviewed it yet. The contents are significant. Eller is up & ready to appear at 5am. Neither Eller nor JA have consider it. Summers very annoyed. The judge ..

.. will give them 50 mins. Summers says, if at the end of that time, Eller wants more time, he will be seeking it.

Fitzgerald is seeking approval for 2 additional psychologists reports, I think! Audio was not great.

Re Journalist’s request for disclosure of medical reports - Fitzgerald would like no further disclosures than what has been said in court. Judge asks for the rules, she wants to

...give the press the opportunity to respond to a potential denial. A member of the press association will be asked to attend court.

Someone from the Press Association has entered, received Defence submission from Fitzgerald & she will respond.

Fitzgerald says Defence would like the time to provide a written final submission,it’s important for JA & also because there are supporting reports attached to the statements that haven’t been dealt within the hearings. Preference is for the final submissions to be made ideally..

... aurally as well if the judge can’t accommodate that. Most important is to be given 4 weeks to put it in writing.
Lewis responding, wants to wind it up asap..

Hard to hear Lewis.. he is saying JA should be given the time needed ..

Judge doesn’t want to give Defence 4 weeks

Judge can’t see why it’s necessary, saying “all the while your client will be in custody” Fitzgerald responds by saying bail would be an alternative.
Fitzgerald arguing why he needs 4 weeks, incl the first time he has seen JA in the flesh for months was at the beginning of ..

this hearing.
(Me: I imagine it’s a complex exercise to write a summary based on all the evidence, including refuting all the points made
in the cross examination).
Judge considering the calendar.

Judge concerned the Defence will seek to submit further evidence.

Fitzgerald says if it’s something dramatic, yes.

Fitzgerald says they have not managed to deal with the superseding indictment & Peirce will provide a submission on what they have managed to do.
Judge concerned about finality before the US election.
Fitzgerald says it prob will not be possible, & no matter who wins the election

... it may impact on the case depending on what the new President says about JA, says it’s not something they can avoid.

Judge agrees her decision won’t be made till after the US election.
Agrees they can have 4 weeks but can’t provide a date by which she will deliver judgm’t

Statement being read.
Judge says Mr Assange is speaking to “someone”.. (Stella)it’s inappropriate. Pause so Defence can seek instructions.

Defence reading a statement - audio not clear & she is motoring through it

They are quick to respond to messages & her mic is now on but I have missed whose statement this is, & the first few minutes.

Reference to Domscheit- Berg taking the electronic file & called the author to express concern about unredacted names

Now discussing Lukefeld, psychologist in the prison & Kromberg are not appearing so we can’t cross examine them while they are cross examine all our witnesses.
Defence now wants 2 expert witnesses in response to Lukefeld (sp?) & Kromberg, incl a psychologist who has ..

.. experience at ADX, otherwise we have not had the opportunity to respond.
Lewis objects saying he will seek an adjournment as they will need to cross examine plus bring in their own expert from ADX.

Lewis says enough is enough. We would have to have another hearing.
(Me: given the importance of the case....)

Fitzgerald says Kromberg can say anything he wants, as does Lukefeld, without being challenged - this material was submitted in August.

Fitzgerald says it isn’t easy to get evidence from insiders, you can just accept written statements if you wish

Judge: late evidence was served to her last night (the 2 Defence statements), makes the point both sides have submitted late evidence. (Kromberg’s on 5 Sept)

Judge is reading a decision on the late submissions- refused.

Eller back on screen

Judge gone to look for her relevant Eller bundle

Summers: Eller has served in the military
Examined jabber chat log re passcode hash & court martial records about what they disclosed.
Use of the hashcracking? No
Computer it related to? No
Re Nathaniel.. did it relate to a govt computer? No indication
Is passcode

..without encryption key be sufficient? No

Summers asks him to assume the hash cracking was successful.
Manning had her own account,
The hash value pertained to FTP user account, a local account on her computer that would not give her access to the wider network.
She used her own domain account to download docs

The audio is shocking & they are trying to fix

Jeeez, first a witness statement read we can’t hear, now a complex explanation has taken place in an underwater echochamber

ELler: the code was never cracked.
Had it been done, it would have resulted in a password for the FTP account.
Manning had access to her own account
Had she logged on to the FTP account, it would not have given her access to the domain. It would give her access to the internet.

Eller: if she accessed the docs, the IP address would have been tracked - that’s basic technical knowledge.
& reading the Lemo chat logs, the IP address was discussed by Manning ie downloads tracked using IP address.

Eller: No passcode was required for the Guantanamo docs but she could not have remained anonymous because of the IP address, this info established in Manning trial.

Summers is going thru all the docs, their locations, whether Manning could access them via the FTP account (had the password hash been cracked) and whether she could have done it anonymously. Some files could have been accessed but not anonymously, IP address would give her away

.. & other files would not have been accessible via that account.
Summers explains to the judge the reason we know Manning was aware of how she would be tracked is because she told Lemo.
Summers continues to clarify with Eller that she could not have used the FTP account to copy

.. the files anonymously either.
At Manning’s court martial, it was established there was an alternative way she could have achieved anonymity (?)( need to read witness statement for this.. it’s been challenging to type while concentrating on what’s being said as it’s complex)

Eller explaining it was not possible to download films etc because Manning & others did not have administrator privileges - this is what she was trying to achieve.
Lewis: how do you know the password had not been cracked?
Eller: no evidence it’s been cracked
Lewis: that’s

.. not the same thing.
Lewis: extract from jabber logs in your report.. you say Nathaniel Frank was JA
Eller: yes
Lewis: Manning to JA - any good at LM hash cracking? JA - yes
(Continues reading the conversation) ... “no luck so far”.

Lewis: LM?
Eller: Land Manager
Lewis: to create an LM hash, Windows converts the password.. ( Lewis going thru the complex Windows process)

Lewis a brute force attack & other ways to try to crack the hash.
Lewis asks about JA having the Rainbow tables.. because you say “at the time it was not possible to crack an encrypted hash”

Eller: at the time
Lewis: Manning was running Windows XP

Lewis: reads from Windows info for that system which warns it is possible to crack password hashes.

Lewis: this is what Manning sent to JA
Eller: yes

Lewis: Microsoft no longer support the LM hash because it’s easier to break because it’s not case sensitive & other reasons... making it easy to crack a hash with 7 characters.
Quoting now from another article ..

.. that provides the methods used to crack hashes, incl in Windows 10.
That article is from 2016.
Lewis is trying to get Eller to say it was possible,

Eller quoting now from a Microsoft 1999 doc that says they have made a change that makes it impossible. (Bingo)
Lewis responds by saying he doesn’t want to argue with him, (but it’s not him. Its Microsoft), adding that the court-martial found it would not have been enough anyway

Lewis wants a win: asks if he agrees JA is a superb hacker & a great hacker can crack anything.. (um, I can’t see how this is going to help).

Lewis: Manning used her own account which contained forensic evidence used against her at her trial ie Bradley.Manning

Lewis: reads from court martial transcript... the location where she found the cables.

Lewis: asking whether the FTP account could be used to hide activity in your own account
Eller: yes
Lewis: Manning accessed the docs on her account but if she’d used the FTP account she could have accessed the docs in a way that would not be visible
Eller: it would be visible

.. on the computer itself.

Lewis: in terms of whether the FTP account would be useful for other purposes.. your report says it was common for soldiers to crack the administrator password to download other material

Lewis: Defence say & you have speculated Manning wanted to download movies & music.
You said it could be assumed the FTP acct would have administrator privileges.. but you don’t know it did, it almost certainly didn’t
Eller: how can you say that? ..according to the govt’s

... experts, they could not conclude that so how could you?

10 min break

So the ten minute break rolled into lunch but not before the judge made a slip of the tongue & said Mr Fitzgerald would be continuing for the Prosecution after lunch, to great mirth.

Jennifer speaking with JA.
Lewis not back this afternoon.

Summers: jabber log Nobody is Chelsea Manning, did you look at evidence as to who Nathaniel Frank would be?
Eller: no
Eller admits he can’t know who was sitting at that computer on the other side each time.

Eller stands by his assessment that JA could not have cracked the password hash, that Microsoft say it was computationally infeasible to crack the hash.

Eller: it was impossible & my opinion aligns with the govt expert in Manning’s court martial case

Summers: even if the hash was cracked & managed to log into the FTP local account, activity would be traceable via IP address & time of access
Eller: 2 individuals use each computer, one in the day & one at night.

Eller: Manning didn’t need to access the FTP account because she already had a Linux CD.

Eller: there was no benefit to her to use the FTP account to access the material she did or to cover her tracks.

Eller: the FTP account most likely would have had admin privileges, needed to download material such as movies & music.
Witness finished.

No further statements can be read (they have to agree to the content beforehand).

Judge wants to deal with the Press request. Smith reads from a previous Supreme Court judgement: this court has the responsibility to deliver open justice...

.. assist public scrutiny plus understand how the justice system works V harm to privacy.
Prosecution supports Defence position there is no need for further disclosure.

Both parties say the press needs to argue why & how it would advance open justice.

Judge says aren’t the statements in the public domain by virtue of being adopted by the court.

Smith: advancing Supreme Court arguments on modern practice .. it is up to the judge to conclude whether observers have not been able to understand proceedings without access to the medical docs.

Judge says that’s helpful. The press rep at this point who we haven’t seen & can barely hear, will need to make an argument.
Fitzgerald now: it would have to amount to the press saying despite what has unfolded in court, they still can’t understand.

Fitzgerald: given the harm to someone who suffers from depression, and to his family given the private matters included, most of which has been covered, it’s going a step too far, but they are not past the first step, arguing the case.