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LONDON UK / NEW YORK, New York – The British foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt has made the erroneous claim that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s actions have led to people’s deaths.

Speaking to Margaret Brennan on ‘Face the Nation’ on CBS on Sunday from London, the UK’s top diplomat made the comment, adding that while the UK needed to follow its own legal processes, he would not stand in the way of Julian Assange facing justice.

In the wide-ranging interview, Mr Hunt, who is a candidate to replace Theresa May as prime minister, said both the U.S. and the UK strongly respect the independence of the judiciary.

“But Julian Assange is someone who is alleged to have committed some very serious crimes, alleged to have led to people’s deaths,” he said.

“And so it is absolutely right that he faces justice and he has no more reason to escape justice than anyone else who alleged to have committed crimes. So I think what’s happened is the right thing,” he added.

Brennan then posed the question: “So if you do become prime minister you would not stand in the way of an extradition of Assange to the United States?”

“Well we would have to follow our own legal processes just as the U.S. has to follow its own legal processes,” replied the foreign secretary. “But do I think, would I want to stand in the way of Julian Assange facing justice? No I would not.”

There is no suggestion Julian Assange’s actions led to any deaths. The recent indictment filed against him by the U.S. detailed 18 charges.

The court document alleges Assange’s actions risked serious harm to U.S. national security to the benefit of its adversaries and put the unredacted named human sources at grave and imminent risk of serious physical harm and/or arbitrary detention.

However, the 37-page indictment does not detail a single instance of any individual or group, or of any party that was actually harmed as a result of the publication of the documents.

NPR ran a piece on 12 April 2019 addressing the damage to U.S. national security the leaking by WikiLeaks caused, and again there is no instance of anyone actually coming to any harm.

The article by Greg Myre summarises the situation at the conlusion of the article with a quote at the time of the leaking by former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

“The fact is, governments deal with the United States because it’s in their interest,” he said. “Not because they like us, not because they trust us and not because they believe we can keep secrets.”

“Is this embarrassing? Yes. Is it awkward? Yes. Consequences for U.S. foreign policy? I think fairly modest,” he said.