Meanwhile;
Julian Assange is now free, according to a post on X from the WikiLeaks account.
“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 plane and departed the UK.”
Court documents indicate Assange has reached a plea deal with the US on one count of violating the Espionage Act
A hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday morning at 9AM ET, which will be about 7PM ET on Tuesday night in the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands. There, DOJ prosecutors “...anticipate that the defendant will plead guilty to the charge in the Information of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information relating to the national defense of the United States.”
The plea deal seems largely consistent with rumours circulating earlier this year. It was widely assumed Assange would plead guilty to one charge, which was expected to be a misdemeanour charge of mishandling documents rather than under the US Espionage Act.
We may never know the US’ full reasoning, but there are several possibilities as to why it decided to go to a plea deal and not continue with litigation.
The Australian government has been pushing hard for a couple of years now for this case to end for one, and that could well be a big political motivated move.
Biden had hinted about this earlier this year April, Biden was asked if he would consider a request from Australia to drop the prosecution, he answered, “We’re considering it”.