The law in each state of the US is different, but I'm fairly certain in every one sex with someone incapable of consent due to unconsciousness is rape. Rape-by-deception laws are more variable between US states, and the US generally and they are generally new (the last few decades) and still fairly weak, often being driven in each state by desire to address the circumstances of a particular single case where efforts to prosecute rape-by-deception as general lack of consent without a specific law addressing deception failed.

Not sure why the legality in the US is material since the act didn't occur in the US, doesn't involve US persons, and the extradition being conducted isn't from or to the US.

It's material because people are using attacks on his character as a proxy to discredit his work. Most people I encounter have completely dismissed Assange, WikiLeaks, and anything related at this point. It seems the CIA smear campaign has succeeded, even though their first attempts were failures, such as the HBGary/Palantir debacle.

> It's material because people are using attacks on his character as a proxy to discredit his work

Even if that were true, the legal status of his alleged acts had they been committed in the US would still not be germane.

Penetration of a sleeping person without consent is definitely illegal in the US, even if you had consensual sex the night before.

Not in Ohio. There is a marital exception for certain acts that would constitute rape anywhere else, like drugging your spouse and then raping them.

https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/editorials/2019/04/21/st...

While that's appalling, I'm pretty sure he wasn't married to any of the two women.

I don’t believe there is a distinction between reproductive coercion and sexual assault in the United States. IANAL, though.