A White House spokesman said Julian Assange, 52, would likely be returned to his native Australia as a free man soon, but not because of President Joe Biden.
After more than a decade spent holed up in embassies and jail, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has finally reached a plea deal with U.S. authorities, according to court documents unsealed Monday night. In 2010, Assange was working with an Army intelligence analyst. Chelsea Manning Disclose information about U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Nothing is to be gained by continuing to lock him up. We want to bring him back to Australia.”
A few years later, Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison, but President Obama commuted the sentence before leaving office in 2017. Meanwhile, Assange languished in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, trying to avoid extradition to Sweden to face sexual assault charges.
The statute of limitations on the sexual assault allegations, which Assange has always denied, eventually expired, but Ecuador withdrew its asylum offer in 2019. That same year, the Trump administration indicted Assange in connection with leaks of U.S. military intelligence. Assange then sought refuge in the embassy, but was arrested by British police for jumping bail and jailed. AP report.
He was then imprisoned for a further five years until he reached an agreement with US authorities.
Assange reportedly flew from London to Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory, on Monday night. He is due to appear in U.S. federal court there on Wednesday and likely plead guilty. 1 count He was found guilty of conspiracy to obtain and leak national defense information and sentenced to prison.
Assange is expected to be returned to his family in Australia after that, a surprise development that will almost certainly be welcomed by Australian leaders. Earlier this year, the Australian House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a resolution urging the British and US governments to allow Assange to return home.
“Regardless of what people think about Mr Assange’s activities, this case is dragging on,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at the time. “There is nothing to be gained by continuing to detain him and we want to bring him back to Australia.”
With the federal government winning a conviction and Assange likely to be released soon, both sides in the case can confidently claim victory — but the Biden administration has refused to acknowledge any of it.
“This was an independent decision made by the Department of Justice and the White House had no role in making plea agreement decisions,” White House National Security Council spokesman Adrienne Watson said.
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment from the New York Post. The Post also quoted a source as saying that it was “not aware of whether Mr. Biden played any role in the ultimate resolution of this case.”
Biden told reporters in April that he was “considering” closing Assange’s case, but declined to comment further.
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