Our reporting begins with Julian Assange who could finally face justice here in the United States after he spent nearly seven years holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in london. He was arrested today after he was given the boot. Here he is in up the close. They had to drag him out and push him into a waiting police van. The u. S. Justice department looking to extradite assange after charging him with conspiracy to help a former Army Intelligence analyst, Chelsea Manning, hack into the pentagons Computer System to steal and publish government secrets. Julian assange sporting a dramatic new look and the long beard. We havent seen a lot of him since ecuador cut off his Internet Access more than a year or so ago. Assange flash add peace sign as the cops drove him away. Heres a throw back to when assange looked like this in may of 2017. His attorney is vowing to fight his extradition to america. The editor in chief of wikileaks called as song a journalist that exposed war crimes of the United States of america and now the victim of political persecution. This is journalistic. Its called conspiracy, conspiracy to commit journalism. This has to end. The c. I. A. Has called wikileaks a Hostile Intelligence Service embedded by state actors like russia. The website published emails stolen from the dnc and Hillary Clintons campaign which we now know were hacked by Russian Military spies. Julian assange has denied that he worked with moscow. Assange could get prison time for skipping bail in the United Kingdom years ago when he decided to hide out in Ecuadors Embassy to avoid getting extradited to sweden on a rape case. Today a british judge told assange that hes a narcissist that cannot see beyond his own selfish interests. The chief intelligence correspondent, Catherine Herridge reporting live from washington. Catherine . At the white house, the president tried to distance himself from the website and his founder, assange. I know nothing about wikileaks. Its not my thing. I know theres something having to do with Julian Assange. Ive seen what has happened with assange. That will be a determination i would imagine mostly by the attorney general who is doing an excellent job. He will be making a determination. I know nothing really about him. Its not my deal in life. The sevenpage virginia indictment was filed under seal in march. It accuses as song of one of the largest compromises of classified information in u. S. History. It states that the wikileaks founder engaged with Chelsea Manning to crack a Defense DepartmentComputer Network password. The indictment reads in part at the time that he entered into this agreement, assange knew that manning was providing records of wikileaks containing defense training. Assange was receiving classified reports from manning for the purpose of publicly disclosing them on wikileaks website. He said a former head of Homeland Security and Defense Department general counsel told fox and friends that the legal picture is complicated. There may be a claim that what he was doing was legitimate journalist activity and what constitutes a journalist is a more complex question in the age 0 the internet. Its also important to know on the campaign trail, the president said multiple times or praised multiple times, wikileaks and the release of the emails, shep. As luck and fate would have it, the president who often used to say i love wikileaks has just commented again on wikileaks. As is the case most often, the White House Pool is in there for this and theyre hearing it and recording it. They are play it out. When they do, we will play it for you. First, an arrest of the first prominent democrat as part of the mueller probe. President obamas onetime white house counsel, greg craig, seen here indicted in a case that stems from the special counsels russia investigation. The Justice Department charges the high profile attorney with making false statements while about lobbying work that he did for ukraine. Back to catherine. What details do we have on this . Its not a lengthy indictment. It makes clear that the grand jury found that greg craig lied about his lobbying work on behalf of the ukraine. A Justice Department spokesperson issued a statement in the last hour that reads in part, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging gregory b. Craig with making false statements and concealing information about his activities on behalf of the ukraine from the department of justice, the Foreign Agent registration act known as fara. What the indictment does, it appears to answer critics of the special counsel that felt that only republicans were prosecuted because craig is a high profile democrat. I would emphasize the timing seems to matter becoming before the imminent release of the mueller report. So this is really clearing the deck, shep. Shepard Catherine Herridge live in washington. Thank you. To the president in just a moment. First, bob bianchi, criminal defense attorney. If if theres those in our audience that want to say he exposed things that people needed to know, they can say that. But they havent gotten him on exactly that. They have been specific about the way that they plan to charge Julian Assange. Yeah, this is a really dynamic and unfolding scenario. Shepard hit him like a terrorist. Thats a big point here. Theres a statute of limitations issue on the conspiracy charge, which is usually five years. They put terrorism into that because that extends the statutes of limitations that means when they filed the seals of indictment, they only did it days before that that statute of limitations expired. Expect that to be a big argument in britain when they make an argument that these charges are not something that he should be prosecuted under. The statute of limitations has exposed. Shepard and that could be on the extradition charge. Youre saying he might not come over here . One, they have to prove theres a legitimate charge. It has to be the crime that that country itself would prosecute. That country would make conditions to the United States. For example, easy one to remember is like a recent murder case that i covered. They said the person that committed the murder cannot be charged with a Death Penalty if we bring them back to your country. So one person was convicted. The shooter was not because mexico refused to extradite unless that agreement was made. So extradition is a tricky thing here. Shepard if Julian Assange gets back here and they convict him on the charges, then what happens to him . I expect they want to extract data, Counter Intelligence information from him and information that was related to the mueller probe. So they have him for a lowlevel offense that carry as maximum of 20 years. If they go to this espionage piece, that this could fit and they say listen, if you dont play with us now, were going in, getting a superseding indictment and then were going to have to make you plead to the most readily approvable offense because thats the new guidelines under the department of justice after jeffery sessions, then you could be spending the rest of your life in jail. What the do got . Is it valuable . Is it valuable to other countries . Counter intelligencewise and individuals in the United States that may have helped out. If you want to play ball with us, were working to do that. Theres no doubt that thats what theyll do when they get him over here. Shepard youre a defense attorney. Used to be a prosecutor. You can prosecute and defend. Could you make a defense for Julian Assange that look, he was doing the peoples work. Can you make that defense and if so, how would you do it . Heres where its a media question and a legitimate valuable question here. We cannot have a government interfering with the media and access of data and getting that out to the public, this case go far beyond that. He actually assisted in helping break passwords and pass codes so that shepard would you say that if you were defending him . If i were defending him, id say he was trying to assist somebody in getting data. It wasnt successful. She did this on her own. You should look at this as a guy that was a journalist trying to get information that may have gone a little wayward, maybe stepped over the lines, but you dont need to hit a fly with a sledge hammer here. We dont know the facts other than what is in this indictment. He said you got the keys, the ears, the data. You want to give it to me, let me help you do that. Its a tough argument for the defense. Shepard well know soon enough. I suppose we will. Yeah. Its going to be a battle in the courts. Shepard going to be a process. Thank you. Bob bianchi. Were still waiting for the playback from the president on wikileaks. We heard the president talk about wikileaks on the campaign trail. Who can forget . Hello wikileaks. Helpful at the time. Now the president had Different Things to say today and well hear from the president on a number of different topics in just a few minutes. Well play it for you and you can decide. Alexa, who is listening to your conversation . Turns out some amazon workers are keeping tabs on what you say when youre around alexa. This cannot be a shock, can it . Guess how many employees are listening to what youre saying and writing it down for the amazon. Take a wild guess. Dont google it during the commercial break. Thats cheating. When we come back, youll hear how many employees are listening to what youre saying and writing it down. And later, florida man busted for bad behavior. This florida man was also a mayor. But first, Michael Avenatti tweeter in more trouble with the law. Prosecutors accusing the attorney of stealing millions from his client and he could spend centuries behind bars. I mean, no one lasts for centuries, but the law does. Thats coming up as reporting continues on a wednesday afternoon. Oh, todays thursday. If you have moderate to severe psoriasis, Little Things can be a big deal. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not a cream. Its a pill that treats plaque psoriasis differently. With otezla, 75 clearer skin is achievable. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. It may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. Otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. 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You know your family we know Senior Living. Together well make the right choice. But dad, youve got allstate. With accident forgiveness they guarantee your rates wont go up just because of an accident. Smart kid. Indeed. Are you in good hands . Shepard Michael Avenatti got a dump truck of charges on his head today. Hes accused of hiding 4 million from a paraplegic client with a mental illness. Thats according to prosecutors in los angeles who say its just one of 36 charges against him today. The u. S. Attorney says that Michael Avenatti is convicted on all the counts he could get, theoretically speaking, 335 years in prison. The other charges include stealing millions from four other clients, also not paying taxes for years, lying about a Bankruptcy Court and bank fraud. Michael avenatti, among other things, represented the porn actress Stormy Daniels in lawsuits against the president after he had done allegedly all of that other stuff. These charges in l. A. Are separate from another case here in new york city. The feds say avenatti tried to shake down nike in that case. Prosecutors say avenatti and an unnamed associate threatened to hold a News Conference that nike had misconduct if they didnt pay him 25 million. Avenattis lawyers say hes not guilty. Jeff paul reporting live in our west coast news hub. Jeff . Yeah, shep. Investigators say instead of giving that paraplegic client his money, avenatti spent it on himself. The indictment says when the client filed documents, avenatti ignored the settlement information to the government knowing it could show the alleged embezzlement. As a result, the client stopped receiving his disability checks. In another case, avenatti received millions in a settlement for his client. The next day he bought a private jet, the same jet that was seized yet. In addition to the wire fraud case, they accuse him of bank, tax and wire fraud. These four areas of criminal conduct are all linked to one another because money generated from one set of crimes was used to further other crimes. Typically in the form of payments designed to string along victims so as to prevent mr. Avenattis financial house of cards from collapsing. Avenatti has been very active on social media today to respond to this indictment. In one tweet he wrote, i intend to fully fight all charges. I like forward to the truth being known as opposed to the onesided version. His next court date is april 29. Shepard thanks, jeff. Michael avenatti in trouble. Seems to me when all the media appearances were going on and the hysteria, many lawyers like myself are like what is this guy doing . This is not the way lawyers perform and handle their cases. Its more about getting money. I have seen and prosecuted unfortunately lawyers, not many of them, but a few that are getting into financial trouble so they do wheeling. Theyre taking in money from clients thats supposed to go to them. Thats our obligations as attorneys. Rather theyre using it for their personal life or pay off other clients that they scam from and committing tax fraud and not to mention the fact that theyre stealing their clients funds. Mr. Avenatti has charges against him in multiple jurisdictions and heres the physics of prosecutions. Audience ask this all the time. The high, the risk, the famous, they dont get charged. Before prosecutors pull a trigger on avenatti, theyre going to make sure they have is dotted and ts crossed and make sure they dont have egg on their face. Thats the benefit that high powered people that avenatti get. Once they feel they have enough evidence, they are teeth in like a bone and theyre going to make sure that they twist and turn him in the system. The more again, the narcissism or whatever psychological issues are going on, that he gets out there and tweeting in the public. Every lawyer knows, tell your client to be quiet. He needs to get a good lawyer that can do p. R. For him as well as defend him on these charges and mitigate and lesson the damage. Shepard one of the most interesting things about this, when he was jumping back and forth across the street between our two cable news competitors and making these claims and talking about running for president of the United States, he had already according to prosecutors taken the money from a mentally ill paraplegic that was supposed to have gotten a lump sum of 4 million. Avenatti told someone with mental deficiencies and physical impossibilities, no, you only get it out in drips and drabs and stealing money from this person. Thats dozens of things while he was professing to be this star in future president. Its quite a thing. Is it surprising that System People that act this way have some sort of mental thing in their head . They can feel they do what they want and how they want to do it and dont realize when they get public attention, you better be squeaky clean or youre going to get hurt. Shepard i mentioned to our audience the president was asked about wikileaks and now we have the video of is that available now . Lets play it. Thank you. I dont know much about it. Thank you. Thank you. So unless i missed it, this time there was no answer on wikileaks. All he said is i dont know much. Earlier he said he didnt know wikileaks. He may not know wikileaks more than the rest of us know wikileaks unless that they released a bunch of stuff. Its hard to forget but we have recordings. So here. This just came out. This just came out. Wikileaks, i love wikileaks. Ill tell you, this wikileaks stuff is unbelievable. Tells you the inner heart. You have to read it. So wikileaks documents show how the media conspires and collaborates with clinton campaign. Another one came in today, this wikileaks is like a treasure trove. Another one came in today. I was getting off the plane. They were just announcing new wikileaks. I wanted to stay there but i didnt want to keep you waiting. I love reading those wikileaks. Shepard i mean, it is what it is. Yeah, theres a shepard its helpful until it isnt. Now hes going to distance himself. Its hard to understand