WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has agreed to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge in exchange for his release from a British prison.
He was heading toward a remote Pacific island on Tuesday to appear before a federal judge where he is expected to be sentenced to five years, which is equivalent to the time he’s served in Britain.
The plea deal will free Assange and bring an end to the drawn-out legal battle over his publication of classified material.
A letter from Justice Department official Matthew McKenzie said Assange would appear in court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S.-controlled territory north of Guam, at 9 a.m. local time Wednesday (7 p.m. ET Tuesday) to plead guilty.
A plane believed to be carrying Assange landed early Tuesday in the Thai capital Bangkok to refuel. He will later arrive for what could be a final court hearing after spending five years in a British jail.
The islands are 3,400 miles north of Australia, Assange's country of citizenship, where the Justice Department expects he will return following the proceedings.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that "the case has dragged on for too long, there is nothing to be gained by his continued incarceration and we want him brought home to Australia." […]
U.S. charges against Assange stem from one of the largest publications of classified information in American history, which took place during President Barack Obama's first term.
Starting in late 2009, according to the government, Assange conspired with Chelsea Manning, a military intelligence analyst, to use his WikiLeaks website to disclose tens of thousands of activity reports about the war in Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of reports about the war in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of State Department cables and assessment briefs of detainees at the U.S. detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
Court documents revealing Assange's plea deal were filed Monday evening in U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands. Assange was expected to appear in that court and to be sentenced to 62 months, with credit for time served in British prison, meaning he would be free to return to Australia, where he was born. (NBC News)
His wife, Stella Assange, told Reuters they would seek a pardon given what acceptance of guilt means for journalists.
"The fact that there is a guilty plea, under the Espionage Act in relation to obtaining and disclosing National Defense information is obviously a very serious concern for journalists and national security journalists in general," she said.
WikiLeaks celebrated the development and is publishing his flight tracking information should anything go awry.
JULIAN ASSANGE IS FREE
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 24, 2024
Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stansted airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a…
All eyes on Flight VJ199 for the next 24 hours #AssangeJet https://t.co/It9CkV8Vg2
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 25, 2024
"Julian Assange is free," WikiLeaks said in a post on X. "After more than five years in a 2x3 metre cell, isolated 23 hours a day, he will soon reunite with his wife Stella Assange, and their children, who have only known their father from behind bars. WikiLeaks published groundbreaking stories of government corruption and human rights abuses, holding the powerful accountable for their actions. As editor-in-chief, Julian paid severely for these principles, and for the people's right to know. As he returns to Australia, we thank all who stood by us, fought for us, and remained utterly committed in the fight for his freedom. Julian's freedom is our freedom."