"Last year the NLG refused to schedule a convention panel on Russiagate, with proposed speakers Cynthia McKinney and Ray McGovern. The Executive Committee also refused, “because of our relations with Russia,” to issue a statement condemning the requirement that RT register as a foreign agent. This year it is still not addressing the legal or McCarthyesque aspects of Russiagate at its upcoming convention.’”

The Guild’s subsequent position on Julian Assange is still more troubling. Four days after Assange was arrested and dragged from the Ecuadorian Embassy on April 11, I asked the Guild’s director if we could issue a statement of support for Assange and Chelsea Manning, who was imprisoned for refusing to go before a Grand Jury to testify against Assange.

The director said: “We haven’t been working on the Assange or Manning cases and unfortunately do not have the capacity to adequately write a statement.”

So past National President Marjorie Cohn and current national board member Jeanne Mirer, both also in leadership of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, which strongly supports Assange and Manning, wrote a statement of support for Assange and Manning on behalf of the Guild. Marjorie Cohn is probably the most published of all Guild members.

Then followed a month of excuses from the president and director:

The Executive Committee decided that Marjorie’s (Cohn) statement wasn’t specific enough to what we wanted to put out as an organization.

Her statement didn’t follow our guidelines.

Issues need to come from committees and further committee work.

It also needs some punchy language, like a quotation.

Finally, after prodding by long-time Los Angeles Guild Director Jim Lafferty, the Guild president on May 13 admitted:

“The delay has been that Julian Assange is, for many of us in the NLG, a figure we would be hesitant to unconditionally support. WikiLeaks released material harmful to Hillary Clinton before the election and is part of why Trump secured the presidency. Also, earlier today Sweden re-opened the rape case against Assange. And he behaved in the Ecuadorian embassy in ways that seem very disrespectful of staff there. So, while it’s important to support whistleblowers, an uncritical statement about Assange right now doesn’t seem appropriate.”"