WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange pleaded guilty and was sentenced on Wednesday as part of a deal he struck with the U.S. Justice Department to end his imprisonment.
Assange, an Australian publisher, pleaded guilty Wednesday morning in federal court in Saipan, the capital of the U.S. federal Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Ramona Manglona.
The Commonwealth’s plea accommodated Assange’s wish to avoid the U.S. mainland. The deal was first disclosed in a letter sent by the Justice Department Monday night.
Asanji was imprisoned in the UK and arrived at the court from there on a chartered flight accompanied by members of his legal team and Australian officials.
WIKILEAKS FOUNDER JULIAN ASSANGE AGREES TO PLEASE TO AVOID US JAIL
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, left, is escorted as he arrives at a U.S. courthouse to face his conviction in Saipan, Mariana Islands, on Wednesday. (AP)
This comes after Assange tried for years to avoid extradition from the UK to the US on charges of publishing classified US military documents leaked by an intelligence source.
Before his conviction, Assange, 52, was: 17 cases under the Espionage Act He is charged with receiving, possessing and transmitting confidential information to the public and conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. He avoided the possibility of spending up to 175 years in a U.S. maximum security prison by reaching a plea deal.
The charges were brought by the Trump administration’s Justice Department in response to WikiLeaks’s 2010 release of cables leaked by U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, and the Biden administration has continued to pursue the indictment, pending appeal negotiations. The cable details alleged war crimes committed by the U.S. government in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and detention camps, as well as instances of the CIA’s involvement in torture and extradition.
WikiLeaks’ “Collateral Murder” video, which shows U.S. troops shooting civilians in Iraq, including two Reuters reporters, was also released 14 years ago.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in the Australian capital Canberra on Wednesday that he was “using all appropriate channels to support a positive outcome” in the Assange case.
“I have made it very clear, as Labor leader and prime minister, that whatever your view of Mr Assange’s activities, his case has been delayed for too long,” Albanese said. “There is nothing to be gained by continuing to keep him incarcerated, and we want to bring him back to Australia.”
As a condition of the plea, Assange must destroy classified information provided to WikiLeaks.
Australian lawmakers sent a letter to Biden on World Press Freedom Day urging him to drop the charges against Julian Assange.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was the first journalist to be indicted under the Espionage Act. (AP)
The plea deal required Assange to plead guilty to a single felony, but allowed him to avoid jail time in the United States and return home to his family in Australia. Assange’s release was welcomed by his family and supporters, but concerns were still raised about press freedom after he was forced to admit to his journalistic activities.
“It’s good news that the Justice Department has put an end to this embarrassing case,” Seth Stern, director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, told Fox News Digital. “But it is surprising that the Biden administration felt the need to extract a guilty plea to the crime of obtaining and disclosing government secrets. A plea deal would not preempt a court ruling, but it would still linger in the mind. “This will be the role of national security reporters for years to come.”
Jennifer Robinson, one of Assange’s lawyers, told reporters that her client’s case “sets a dangerous precedent that all journalists should be concerned about.”
“It is a great relief to Julian Assange, his family, friends, his supporters and us – all who believe in free speech around the world – that he can now return to his native Australia and reunite with his family.” ” She said.
A British court has ruled that Julian Assange is fully entitled to appeal his US extradition under the First Amendment.
Assange was held at the following locations: High-security Belmarsh Prison in London After being expelled from the Ecuadorian embassy on April 11, 2019, for violating his bail conditions. He has been applying for asylum at the embassy since 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden on charges of sexually assaulting two women. Because he will not guarantee that Sweden will extradite him to the United States. The investigation into the sexual assault allegations was eventually halted.
As the case was closed, the Justice Department avoided an appeal hearing in which Assange would have challenged his extradition to the United States on First Amendment grounds. Last month, Assange was granted the right to appeal, after his lawyers argued that the United States had provided him with “blatantly inadequate” assurances that he would be guaranteed the same freedom of speech as American citizens in U.S. courts.
Assange told the court Wednesday that he believes the Espionage Act violates the First Amendment but accepts the consequences of requesting confidential information from sources.
He was the first journalist to be indicted under the Espionage Act.
“This is an indictment that should not have been brought,” Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU’s Voice, Privacy and Technology Project, told Fox News Digital. “Julian Assange pleaded guilty to what is at the heart of national security investigative journalism and what journalists do every day: It is their job to mine government secrets and expose them for the public good.”
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange left London’s Belmarsh Prison on Monday after being granted bail at a secret hearing last week. (AP)
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Assange’s wife, Stella, told the BBC she had been ‘waiting’ for about 72 hours whether a deal would go through, but was ‘delighted’ to hear her husband would be released. She said details of the settlement will be made public after the judge approves it.
The WikiLeaks founder left a London prison on Monday after being granted bail at a secret hearing last week. He boarded a plane that landed in Bangkok a few hours later to refuel before heading to Saipan.
In 2013, the Obama administration decided not to prosecute Assange over WikiLeaks’ 2010 release of classified cables. Because journalists from major media outlets who published the same material would also have to be prosecuted.
President Obama too Manning’s 35-year sentence commuted Manning, who had been incarcerated since 2010 and was sentenced to seven years in prison in January 2017 on charges including violating the Espionage Act, was released at the end of that year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
