WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange pleaded guilty and was sentenced to time served on Wednesday as part of a deal he reached with the US Department of Justice to end his imprisonment.
Assange, an Australian publisher, pleaded guilty Wednesday morning in federal court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, an American community in the Pacific. The sentence was imposed by US District Judge Ramona Manglona.
The deal was first revealed Monday night in a letter from the Justice Department.
Assange arrived at court after flying from Britain – where he had been imprisoned – on a charter plane accompanied by members of his legal team and Australian officials.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange reaches deal to avoid US prison
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (left) is escorted as he arrives at the US court to reach a plea deal in Saipan, Mariana Islands, on Wednesday. (AP)
This comes after years of Assange trying to avoid being extradited from the UK to the US to face charges for publishing classified US military documents leaked to him by a source.
Before reaching an agreement, Assange, 52, faced 17 charges under the Espionage Act for allegedly receiving, possessing and communicating classified information to the public, as well as a charge alleging conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. By reaching a plea deal, he now avoids the possibility of spending up to 175 years in a U.S. maximum security prison.
The charges were brought by the Trump administration's Justice Department over WikiLeaks' 2010 publication of cables leaked by U.S. military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, and the Biden administration had continued the prosecution until the plea deal. The cables detailed alleged war crimes committed by the US government in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, Cuba, as well as cases in which the CIA participated in torture and rendition.
WikiLeaks' “Collateral Murder” video showing the US military shooting dead civilians in Iraq, including two Reuters journalists, was also published 14 years ago.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia has been “using all appropriate channels to support a positive outcome” in the Assange case when he spoke to reporters in Canberra, the country's capital, on Wednesday.
“I have been very clear as a Labor leader and as prime minister, that whatever your views on Mr Assange's activities, his case has dragged on too long,” Albanese said. “There is nothing to be gained by continuing to incarcerate him. And we want him brought home to Australia.”
As a condition of his statement, Assange must destroy classified information provided to WikiLeaks.
AUSTRALIAN LEGISLATORS SEND LETTER URGING BID TO DROP CASE AGAINST JULIAN ASSANGE ON WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was the first journalist charged under the Espionage Act. (AP)
The plea deal required Assange to admit guilt to a single felony charge, but allowed him to avoid a prison sentence in the United States and return home to his family in Australia. Assange's release was welcomed by his family and supporters, but concerns have still been raised about press freedom since he was forced to admit to journalistic activities.
“It's good news that the Department of Justice is putting an end to this shameful saga,” Seth Stern, advocacy director at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, told Fox News Digital. “But it is alarming that the Biden administration felt the need to obtain a guilty plea for the alleged crime of obtaining and publishing government secrets. The plea agreement will not have the precedential effect of a court ruling, but will still hang over our heads. heads of national security reporters for years to come.
One of Assange's lawyers, Jennifer Robinson, told reporters that her client's case “sets a dangerous precedent that should worry journalists around the world.”
“It is a great relief for Julian Assange, for his family, for his friends, for his followers and for us – for all who believe in freedom of expression around the world – that he can now return home to Australia and meet with his family,” she said.
BRITISH COURT DECLARES THAT JULIAN ASSANGE CAN FILE A FULL APPEAL AGAINST EXTRADITION FROM THE UNITED STATES ON FIRST AMENDMENT GROUNDS
Assange had been arrested in Belmarsh high security prison in London since he was removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy on April 11, 2019, for violating bail conditions. He had sought asylum at the embassy since 2012 to avoid being sent to Sweden over accusations that he raped two women because Sweden gave him no guarantees that it would protect him from extradition to the United States. Investigations into the sexual assault allegations were eventually dropped.
By ending this case, 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 her lawyers successfully argued that the United States had provided “manifestly inadequate” assurances that she would have the same free speech protections as a US citizen in a American court.
Assange said in court Wednesday that he believed the Espionage Act contradicted the First Amendment, but accepted the consequences of requesting classified information from sources.
He was the first journalist charged under the Espionage Act.
“This is a process that should not have been started,” Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, told Fox News Digital. “Julian Assange has pleaded guilty to activities that are at the heart of national security investigative journalism and that journalists engage in every day. It is the job of journalists to probe government secrets and reveal them in the public interest.”
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange walked out of Belmarsh prison in London on Monday after being granted bail during a secret hearing last week. (AP)
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Assange's wife, Stella, told the BBC that for about 72 hours it was “uncertain” whether the deal would go through, but that she felt “elated” at the news that her husband would be freed. She said details of the settlement would be made public after the judge approved it.
The WikiLeaks founder was released from London prison on Monday after being granted bail during a secret hearing last week. He boarded a plane that landed hours later in Bangkok to refuel before heading to Saipan.
In 2013, the Obama administration decided not to charge Assange for WikiLeaks' publication of classified cables in 2010 because it would also have had to charge journalists at mainstream news outlets who published the same materials.
President Obama also commuted Manning's 35-year sentence for violations of the Espionage Act and other crimes to seven years in January 2017, and Manning, who had been imprisoned since 2010, was released that same year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
