WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leaves a U.S. court in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, June 26, 2024.
Jung Sung-joon | Getty Images News | Getty Images
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was released from custody on Wednesday after pleading guilty to a felony charge of leaking U.S. military secrets in a U.S. court in the Pacific Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Assange pleaded guilty to one count of criminal conspiracy to obtain documents, writings and notes related to U.S. defense and to disseminate those materials, according to documents filed in a U.S. court on Saipan, the largest island and capital of the Northern Mariana Islands.
As part of the plea agreement, the United States must withdraw its extradition request and recommend a sentence of time served and no additional fines.
Assange’s U.S. lawyer Barry Pollack told a news conference after the hearing in Saipan that the “chilling impact is that the United States treats journalism as a crime” and warned that it opened a “law order.” A chilling precedent.”
He noted that Assange’s admission of accepting and disclosing documents from Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning “unfortunately violated provisions of the Espionage Act” – which was enacted shortly after the United States entered World War I. A federal law that oversees espionage activities.
“Mr. Assange has made it very clear that he believes this type of conduct should be protected by the First Amendment, but the fact is that, as written, the Espionage Act does not provide a First Amendment defense,” Pollack said. “The U.S. Constitution provides for freedom of speech and press.
WikiLeaks said in a statement on the X social media platform that Assange would fly to his native Australia. Anthony Albanese’s Australian government has been pressing for Assange’s return.
“Whatever one’s view of Mr Assange’s activities, this case has dragged on for too long. Nothing will be gained by continuing to imprison him and we hope to bring him back to Australia. We have engaged and safeguarded Australia’s interests using all appropriate pipeline to support a positive outcome, I started doing that from very early on,” Albanese said in parliament on Tuesday.
In a stunning end to a 12-year standoff with the United States, Assange left London’s high-security Belmarsh prison on Monday and boarded a Bombardier Global 6000 private jet for a flight to Saipan, stopping briefly in Bangkok to refuel. His wife, Stella Assange, said in a statement on Tuesday that he was not allowed to fly to Saipan on a commercial airline or route and on to Australia. social media appeal Emergency donations were made to cover $520,000 in travel expenses.
The fight against extradition
Assange, 52, has been fighting extradition More than ten years. During this period, Assange spent seven years in self-imposed exile at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and the final five in Belmarsh.
Assange is wanted in the United States on 18 counts, 17 of which are under the Espionage Act and one under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. He does face up to 175 years in prison after WikiLeaks published hundreds of thousands of leaked classified military and diplomatic documents related to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
WikiLeaks gained international prominence in 2010 when the site published video of the 2007 U.S. helicopter attack that killed two Reuters news staff and several others in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
It followed that high-profile release with hundreds of thousands of other classified documents, revelations that often embarrassed Washington.
—CNBC’s Sam Meredith contributed to this article.
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