WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has agreed to a plea deal and avoided prison time for his alleged role in a massive government data leak as part of an agreement with the Justice Department, he said in court documents.
Assange is due to plead guilty this week in federal court in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, to one count of conspiring to obtain and disclose national defense information.
The guilty plea must be approved by a judge. Assange has spent five years in a British prison fighting extradition to the United States. Prior to that, he spent seven years taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London after Swedish authorities sought his arrest on rape charges.
Australian lawmakers mark World Press Freedom Day by writing to President Biden urging him to drop case against Julian Assange
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks on the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, UK, on May 19, 2017. He called the Swedish judiciary’s decision to surprisingly drop the rape investigation against Assange an “important victory.” The Australian has been living in exile in the Ecuadorian Embassy for nearly five years in hopes of being extradited. (Photo: Konstantin Eckner/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
Assange, 52, will be sentenced to 62 months, equivalent to the time he has served in Britain.
On Monday, his wife, Stella Assange, celebrated the agreement in a social media post.
“Julian is FREE!!!!” she wrote to X. “Words cannot express our immense gratitude to you all. Yes, all of you have mobilized for years to make this happen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”
WikiLeaks reported that Assange was granted bail at the High Court in London, released at London Stansted Airport and boarded a flight back to Australia.
“As he returns home to Australia, we thank all those who supported us, fought for us and did everything in their power to secure his freedom. Julian’s freedom is our freedom,” the group said in a social media post.
A protester reads a newspaper outside the High Court in London, Monday, May 20, 2024. (Associated Press)
The Ecuadorian government, outraged by his behavior inside the embassy, eventually withdrew his asylum application and he was arrested in 2019.
Press freedom advocates praised Assange’s release online. Seth Stern, director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, told Fox News Digital:
“It’s good news that the Department of Justice has put an end to this embarrassing case, but it’s disturbing that the Biden Administration felt the need to get him to plead guilty to the alleged crime of obtaining and publishing government secrets. While this plea deal does not have the precedential effect of a court ruling, it will likely hang over national security reporters for years to come.”
Stella Assange, wife of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, speaks in London on May 17, 2022. Stella Assange posted a photo of the letter that lawmakers wrote to X on Thursday. (Photo by Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)
“This agreement does not increase Mr. Assange’s prison time or punishment – it is purely symbolic,” Stern added. “The administration could have easily dropped the case, but instead chose to legitimize its criminalization of everyday journalists’ activities and encourage future administrations to follow suit.”
Ben Wisner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, told Fox News Digital that putting Assange on trial would have been a “worst case scenario” for press freedom.
“This is a prosecution that should never have been brought. Julian Assange has pleaded guilty to the very essence of investigative journalism about national security, the work that journalists do every day,” he said. “It is a journalist’s job to pry into government secrets and expose them in the public interest. Today, for the first time, that has been described in a guilty plea as a criminal conspiracy. We can only hope that the Government, which has maintained that the Assange case is distinct, will be true to its word and that this does not set a precedent for targeting mainstream media outlets.”
The charges against Assange stem from one of the largest public disclosures of classified information in American history. An Australian citizen and hero to many press freedom advocates, Assange has released tens of thousands of documents, including reports on the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, State Department cables and information about prisoner detention at Guantanamo Bay.
A spokesman for Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told Fox News Digital he was aware of Assange’s release.
“We are aware that Australian citizen Julian Assange has upcoming legal proceedings in the United States. As those proceedings are ongoing it would not be appropriate to comment further,” he said. “The Australian Government continues to provide consular assistance to Mr Assange. Prime Minister Albanese has been clear that Mr Assange’s case is dragging on and there is nothing to be gained by his continued imprisonment.”
Robert Kennedy Jr. said he was “overjoyed” at the news.
Stella Assange, wife of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Monday, May 20, 2024. (Associated Press)
“He is a hero for a generation,” he posted on X. “Unfortunately, he had to plead guilty to conspiracy to obtain and release national defense information. This means the US security state has successfully criminalized journalism and extended its jurisdiction to foreigners around the world.”
He also said the US government should build a monument in Assange’s honour and called for the release of whistleblower Edward Snowden, who fled the US and remains in Russia, and Ross Ulbricht, founder of the online drug sales site Silk Road.
Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia was pleased to hear that Assange was no longer in custody.
“Great news! Julian Assange is set to be released after years of being held for journalism offences,” she wrote to X. “Thank God for releasing Julian!!”
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) also responded.
“My plane just landed in Washington and I heard that Julian Assange will soon be free as part of a deal,” he wrote on social media. “His release is great news but it’s tragic that he has already spent so much time in prison. Obama, Trump and Biden should never have pursued this prosecution. Pardon Snowden and release Ross now.”
The plea deal comes months after President Biden said he was considering a request from Australia to drop the U.S. effort to prosecute Assange. A White House official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the White House was not involved in the decision to settle Assange’s case.
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Federal prosecutors said Assange conspired with Chelsea Manning, then a U.S. Army intelligence analyst, to steal diplomatic cables and military files that were published by WikiLeaks in 2010. Prosecutors had accused Assange of undermining national security by publishing documents that harm the United States and its allies and aid its enemies.
Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison. President Barack Obama commuted his sentence in 2017 on his final day in office.
Clayton Weimers, executive director of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in the United States, said the group had been fighting to secure Assange’s release.
“Indeed, our team, and in particular our campaign director Rebecca Vincent, were the only NGO representatives in the London courtroom during all of Assange’s hearings and the only NGO to visit him in prison,” Weimers told Fox News Digital. “His release is a vindication of a long-running struggle. It is a victory for press freedom, but until the Espionage Act is amended to include a public interest defence, any publisher of classified leaks, including journalists and media, may face this ordeal.”
Swedish prosecutors dropped their investigation into Assange in 2017 and an international arrest warrant against him was dropped, but he remained wanted by British authorities for jumping bail when he entered the embassy.
Julian Assange’s legal team is making one last legal move in Britain to stop the WikiLeaks founder from being extradited to the US to face espionage charges. (Associated Press)
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Assange drew attention again in 2016 when he published Democratic Party emails on his website that prosecutors said were stolen by Russian intelligence agents. He was never indicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
