Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Julian Assange and we're discussing him in the context of renunciation of US citizenship. These two topics would seemingly be so disparate that they would not really warrant a video like this because again the juxtaposition, I could see where some would argue what does one have to do with the other. Well let's jump in here.

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from AP News, that's apnews.com, the article is titled: WikiLeaks founder Assange wins right to appeal against an extradition order to the US. I am not going to get into Assange's case, not the purpose of this video. A lot of other people out there have talked about it; reasonable people can have their own opinions on it. My personal opinion is I question whether or not US Authorities have actual jurisdiction over Assange and I will get into that further here in a moment. Quoting further: "Assange's lawyers have argued he was a journalist who exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sending him to the U.S., they said, would expose him to a politically motivated prosecution and risk a "flagrant denial of justice." The U.S. Government says Assange's actions went way beyond those of a journalist gathering information, amounting to an attempt to solicit, steal and indiscriminately publish classified Government documents. The brief ruling from the bench followed arguments over Assange's claim that by releasing the confidential documents he was essentially a publisher and due the free press protections guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution." But, the counter argument to that is "hey you're a non-US citizen, non-US resident, non-US national living outside of the United States. You're a non-resident alien", is basically the assertion and they are saying you are not a US citizen. You don't have the protections of the First Amendment. That's the way I'm understanding this case's posture basically is if Assange was an American citizen, there would be no question you have certain First Amendment rights. But the fact that he's not, precludes him from exercising those rights. That's how I understand this. 

Now the paradoxes here, it is my understanding he has never been to the US; he doesn't have any connections to the US; he's not an American citizen so how does the US have jurisdiction to try to drag him back in to the United States? That's a different question. My personal opinion is I don't really think that they do and I think that is fairly clear. But that said, the reason, often times you have got to remember the saying "the process is the punishment", or as friends of mine in law enforcement have said, "you may beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride". The process is the punishment and believe me, Julian Assange, going through this process, has been severely punished for the things that he has done in the past. Now whether you think that those were warranted or whether you think that those were acts that deserve punishment, again people disagree on that. My personal opinion is he looks a lot like a journalist to me but I don't want to get into that here. The point I am trying to make though is, again if he is a non-US citizen, not living in the United States, it's a hard argument in my mind that he can assert rights as an American citizen. Again does the First Amendment pertain to a non-US citizen not on US soil? It's a good question. I don't think it does actually for the same reason I don't think they have jurisdiction over him.

So again it's kind of circular and paradoxical but the point I am trying to make for those again it is something that really bugs me in the so-called ‘nomad’ community, ‘expat’ community, that people talk about renunciation of US Citizenship in a very cavalier manner and it always seems to be talked about in the context or rubric of taxes. "Oh I have got to get out from under these taxes, so I have got to renounce my citizenship". I don't think people fully understand the ramifications of waiving one's privileges and immunities of US citizenship and I think this Assange case is very illustrative of the risks associated with renunciation.  

Now again, not everybody is going to go out there and want to be Julian Assange and dump a bunch of confidential government information on to the open sort of market of the internet if you will, in order to try and be an activist or something of this nature. I get that, not everyone is Julian Assange, so you may not necessarily be able to make apples to apples comparisons between somebody who wants to renounce and Julian Assange. More importantly there isn’t anything wrong per se with renunciation. I'm not saying that the idea of renouncing one’s citizenship is somehow inherently bad but as I have said in videos in the past and I have said to people in the past, it does have a tendency to sort of paint a target on a person's back especially from the standpoint of scrutiny and assessability with regard to tax liability. Yeah, they tend to scrutinize those folks that much more. Meanwhile, again it's unwise or maybe I should say imprudent, to cavalierly overlook the privileges and immunities associated with US Citizenship, and one of those privileges and immunities are on display in this Assange case insofar as if he had been an American citizen, this whole case would be moot. I think most of it, probably most of it would be moot. Some aspects of this maybe, maybe not, again the Espionage Act comes into play but a lot of this would be moot. They would basically just say "hey he's an American citizen, he’s operating as a journalist, First Amendment, what are we talking about here, but he's not and that's the point. When you renounce your US, you cease to be a US citizen when you have renounced your citizenship I should have said. At that point your privileges and immunities are no longer there; they are no longer attached to you. So again there may be some people who it's the reasonable decision in their circumstances to renounce their citizenship, but there are a lot of people out there, especially in the ether of the internet, that talk about these issues in a very flippant, very cavalier manner and they don't really fully understand the ramifications that can come about by renunciation of one's US citizenship.