Baltimore, MD -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/09/2017 -- Stansberry Investor Hour co-hosts Porter Stansberry and Buck Sexton spoke to banished WikiLeaks founder & publisher Julian Assange on a wide variety of political and security topics. Assange has been accused of various crimes, but he was quick to note that his portrayal among the media and public is factually inaccurate.

"I have never been charged with anything, at any time," Assange said.

The discussion started with free speech and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. While recent media reports have created a rift between Assange and President Donald Trump, Assange suggested there is no truth to it – and even supports Trump's hard stances against media outlets.

"The First Amendment means that you don't prosecute publishers, but you can prosecute their sources," Assange said. "The government under Trump would like to set the precedent to prosecute publishers."

Stansberry is founder and CEO of Stansberry Research – the largest private and independent investment research company in the world. As a publisher, he has faced First Amendment issues over the course of his career.

"What I see is that Trump threatens the political establishment on both sides of the aisle," Stansberry said. "The newspapers are fighting back against him on behalf of their friends in the political establishment."

As far as Trump's accused collusion with Russia goes, Assange said WikiLeaks has no evidence to report and that he expects Trump to walk away free before it's all said and done.

"This is a bunch of accusations," Assange said. "The Democrats are trying a standard playbook of harassing the Trump Administration in any way they can to lead to its downfall, and very importantly, distract from an epic loss by the existing Democratic leadership, which shouldn't have happened given how experienced [Hillary] Clinton was and inexperienced Trump was."

"The government opposition dogs the President until he leaves office and even after," Stansberry responded. "Reagan, Clinton, now Obama has to deal with it."

Assange then debunked any theories about WikiLeaks working with Russia to hack into U.S. databases or publish sensitive information on intelligence agencies.

"I'm quite annoyed about Russia stealing the credit for our publications," Assange said. "There were so many leaks that we weren't a part of, and they had no political impact. The only publication that had any political impact during the U.S. Election in relation to leaks – other than the Trump 'grab them by the [explicit]' tape – was WikiLeaks. The Kremlin likes to be a player in world affairs. They're not that strong because they have a GDP less than that of South Korea. WikiLeaks published nearly three million documents critical on Russia, Putin and Russia's close ally Syria."

Even if publicly damaging information – whether a leaked tape or embarrassing evidence – is published about Trump in the future, Assange doesn't expect it to affect approval ratings or votes for reelection because of the rated R brand Trump has created for himself.

"Before the Election, a dozen women claimed to have been molested by Trump, and he managed to survive all that," Assange said. "I don't think any tape can take Trump down. But I think such a tape can take someone like Bernie Sanders down because he has a clean image."

Assange stressed that he and WikiLeaks aren't anti-American. He merely wants to report true dirt the government – and the mainstream media – brush under the rug or outright try to cover up.

"America probably does do more good in the world than any other country," Assange said. "It's also probably true it does more bad in the world than any other country. It does a lot of good things and a lot of bad things."

Finally, Assange highlighted his appearance by saying WikiLeaks does a service and that the U.S. government and federal law enforcement have no basis to accuse him of violating national security – or anyone's security, for that matter.

"WikiLeaks has published more than ten million documents, and there is no official allegation that the publication of WikiLeaks had led to the death of even a single person," Assange said. "That's pretty remarkable because WikiLeaks publishes at scale. Nearly any process that's scaled – like manufacturing of motor cars or installation of bath tubs – does actually lead to people accidentally getting killed."

About Stansberry Investor Hour
From business, investing and politics to entertainment and social issues, the Stansberry Investor Hour with Porter Stansberry and Buck Sexton offers candid, intelligent, and entertaining takes on today's most important headlines… inviting a variety of insightful guests to join the conversation. It is becoming a required stop for politicians, the media, and financial and economic experts. The show has been host to a wide variety of prominent names from all sides of the spectrum and has a global audience in more than 100 countries. It is ranked highly in the Investing section of iTunes. New episodes release every week.

Stansberry Investor Hour podcasts can be accessed at http://www.investorhour.com

About Stansberry Research
Stansberry Investor Hour is a part of Stansberry Research – a subscription-based publisher of financial information and software, serving millions of investors around the world.

To learn more about Stansberry Research, visit www.stansberryresearch.com

About Porter Stansberry
Porter Stansberry founded Stansberry Research in 1999 with the firm's flagship newsletter, Stansberry's Investment Advisory.

Prior to launching Stansberry Research, Porter was the first American editor of the Fleet Street Letter, the world's oldest English-language financial newsletter.

Today, Porter is well-known for doing some of the most important – and often controversial – work in the financial advisory business. Since he launched Stansberry's Investment Advisory, his string of accurate forecasts has made his advisory one of the most widely read in the world and has helped his readers both avoid catastrophe and make incredible gains.

For example, his dead-on prediction of the mortgage meltdown got the attention of Barron's, who said Porter's work was "remarkably prescient... Nothing, as far as we can see, has happened to contradict his dire prophecy..."

At Stansberry Research, Porter oversees more than a dozen of the best editors and analysts in the business, who do an exhaustive amount of real-world, independent research. Together, his group has visited hundreds of publicly traded companies to bring Stansberry Research subscribers the safest, most profitable investment ideas in the world, no matter what's happening in the markets.

About Buck Sexton
Buck Sexton is host of the nationally syndicated talk radio program, Buck Sexton with America Now, heard on over 100 stations across the country.

Buck is a political commentator and national security analyst who appears frequently on the Fox News Channel and CNN. Buck has also had the distinction of being a guest host for Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity on their nationally syndicated radio shows, and is the only talent to have hosted all three shows.

Buck formerly served as a CIA officer in the Counterterrorism Center (CTC) and the Office of Iraq Analysis. He completed tours of duty as an intelligence officer in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other hotspots around the globe, and led intelligence briefings for senior U.S. officials including the president. Buck also served in the New York Police Department (NYPD) Intelligence Division working on counterterrorism issues.

A graduate of Amherst College, Buck was born and raised in New York City, where he currently resides

For inquiries – e-mail Dan Ostrowski at DOstrowski@stansberryresearch.com or call 410-864-1725.

Website URL: http://investorhour.com/