The abrupt guilty plea by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was the culmination of negotiations that began a year and a half ago and accelerated in recent months. Interviews by The Associated Press and a review of records make clear that the two sides had to resolve competing desires.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange returned to his homeland Australia aboard a charter jet hours after pleading guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that concludes a drawn-out legal saga.FILE - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gestures after landing at RAAF air base Fairbairn in Canberra, Australia, June 26 2024.
from the Ecuadorian Embassy where he’d been holed up for the prior seven years. Assange took refuge in 2012 after being released on bail whileAt the time of his indictment, Assange was perhaps better well-known for WikiLeaks’ involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential contest when theThe view was different inside the Justice Department that Trump would soon lead.
The Assange team responded that it was open to exploring that possibility but had two lines in the sand about what a resolution would need to entail. He would not accept any additional prison time, nor set foot on U.S. soil given the anxieties shared by him and his supporters about what the American government might do to him.
Department officials who wanted an Assange felony plea ultimately signaled respect for his core demands by floating a concept in which he could enter the deal outside the 50 states, avoid additional prison and be released from custody in Britain, the person said. The U.S. provided those assurances. But Assange’s lawyers accepted only that he wouldn’t face capital punishment and said the assurance that Assange could “raise and seek to rely upon” the First Amendment fell short of the protections he deserved. Last month,Importantly, built into the plea deal was a set of contingencies in the event the judge did not approve it.
“If you’re seeing this, it means he is out,” WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson said in the same video.
Julian Assange U.S. Department Of Justice Wikileaks General News W United States Government Northern Mariana Islands Jeff Sessions Government And Politics P Hillary Clinton U.S. News Military And Defense Chelsea Manning Legal Proceedings Barack Obama Washington News Washington News U.S. News
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