WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange strikes plea deal with the U.S.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has entered into a plea deal with the U.S. government, bringing an end to a years-long international saga over his handling of national security secrets.
Assange is preparing to plead guilty to a single count of conspiring to obtain and disclose information related to the national defense in a U.S. federal court in Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific, this week, according to newly filed court papers.
Under the terms of the agreement, Assange faces a sentence of 62 months, equivalent to the time he has already served at Belmarsh Prison in the United Kingdom while fighting extradition to the United States. He is expected to be released and to return to his home country of Australia following the court proceeding later this week.
Australian leaders have been lobbying the Biden administration to drop the criminal case for years. President Biden confirmed at a news conference in April that American authorities had been “considering” such a move.
A federal grand jury in Virginia indicted Assange on espionage and computer misuse charges in 2019, in what the Justice Department described as one of the largest compromises of classified information in American history.
The indictment accused Assange of conspiring with then-military Private Chelsea Manning to obtain and then publish secret reports about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and sensitive U.S. diplomatic cables. Prosecutors said Assange published those materials on his site WikiLeaks without properly scrubbing them of sensitive information, putting informants and others at grave risk of harm.
“No responsible actor, journalist or otherwise, would purposefully publish the names of individuals he or she knew to be confidential human sources in a war zone, exposing them to the gravest of dangers,” said former Assistant Attorney General John Demers at the time of that indictment.
Manning was arrested in 2010 and served seven years in prison before President Barack Obama commuted her sentence.
Assange’s case attracted support from human rights and journalism groups including Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists, fearing the Espionage Act case against Assange could create precedent for charging journalists with national security crimes.
His interactions with the justice system have followed a byzantine path. Assange spent seven years hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy in London after Swedish officials accused him of sexual assault, an arrangement that appeared to frustrate both Assange and his hosts.
Ultimately, Swedish police withdrew the accusations, but, next, authorities in the U.K. took him into custody for allegedly violating bail.
Then, the American government sought to extradite him, a process that limped through the courts for years. The plea deal averts more legal proceedings over the extradition that had been set for early July.
Transcript
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has entered into a plea deal with the U.S. government. The plea hearing is expected later this week, and it could bring an end to years of uncertainty and delay. NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson has been following the story, and she's on the line with us now to talk more about it. Hi, Carrie.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK, so the Julian Assange case, I mean, it's been bouncing through the courts for years. What exactly is this latest?
JOHNSON: Some big news tonight - Julian Assange has agreed to plead guilty to a single charge in this case. That's conspiracy to obtain and disclose information related to the national defense. He's likely to enter a plea in this case in a U.S. federal court in Saipan, part of the Northern Mariana Islands, later this week. And under the terms of that deal, he would face about five years in prison. That's one of the longest sentences ever in a case like this. Remember, Julian Assange has already served that time in the United Kingdom in the Belmarsh Prison, where he's been waiting out extradition proceedings for years.
CHANG: Exactly. And at the time that the Justice Department charged Assange, authorities said that, you know, this case was one of the largest compromises of classified information in history. Can you just remind us - what kind of information are we talking about here that was at issue?
JOHNSON: Yeah, a grand jury in Virginia indicted Julian Assange on 17 Espionage Act charges. The indictment accused him of working with the former military private, Chelsea Manning, to get records related to the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan. Assange also published sensitive cables from the State Department. Prosecutors and American intelligence analysts said Assange failed to black out names of American informants overseas, and that put their lives at risk - really serious stuff.
CHANG: But the thing is Carrie, the Justice Department had been working to bring Assange to the U.S. to face trial - right? - filing court papers about that just this year. So what changed exactly?
JOHNSON: Well, one of the things that changed is that leaders in Australia had really been heavily lobbying the White House. They pointed out President Obama shortened the prison sentence for Chelsea Manning and that the Assange case had continued to drag on for years and years. Julian Assange is a native Australian. He's expected to go back there after his court proceeding ends. And President Joe Biden got a question about all this back in April at a news conference. Biden said he was considering the request to send Assange home at that time.
CHANG: OK, so what's been the reaction so far to this plea deal?
JOHNSON: Well, it's worth noting that while Julian Assange has not very many fans in the U.S. Justice Department, the State Department or the intelligence community, there are several human rights groups and media organizations that have been vocal supporters of his. They've been arguing for years now that these charges against Julian Assange could have broad implications and that it could mean that a future Justice Department would find it easier to charge reporters with crimes for publishing national security secrets. The Obama Justice Department actually never filed charges against Julian Assange. It was the Trump Justice Department that finally took that step years after the leaks and the publication.
CHANG: That's right. And finally, Carrie, I mean, you know, this case, it's taken so many turns over the years. It's been this total international saga, if you will. Can you remind us of some of those twists and turns?
JOHNSON: Some really wild stuff - Julian Assange first had a run-in with authorities in Sweden who were pursuing him in a sexual assault case. He wound up spending seven years hiding out in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. By the end of that experience, his personal habits had really annoyed officials there. Assange wasn't too happy either. Assange then spent another several years incarcerated in the U.K. The plea deal would finally resolve those charges, but whether this is the last chapter of this bizarre story really remains to be seen.
CHANG: That is NPR's Carrie Johnson. Thank you so much, Carrie.
JOHNSON: My pleasure.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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