Julian Assange is claiming he “has to” write his memoirs, to help cover legal fees and the astronomical running costs of WikiLeaks. If ever a book deserved to be leaked in draft PDF form online prior to publication, it’s this.
According to the Guardian, Assange told the Sunday Times “I don’t want to write this book, but I have to … I have already spent £200,000 for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat”. Assange also reveals that the current WikiLeaks legal bill stands at around $770,000—a figure that was being covered by over $135,000 a day in donations, before the banks put a stop to that.
The $1.3m total comes from an estimated $800,000 advance from US publisher Alfred A Knopf, with an additional $500k coming from the UK. [Guardian]
