Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was released from prison on Monday after striking a plea deal with President Biden’s Department of Justice.
According to newly released court documents, Assange — who has been detained in a British prison for five years — pled guilty to violating the Espionage Act, in which he “knowingly and unlawfully” obtained and shared classified information about the U.S. government’s operations in the Middle East. This information included “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,” according to CNBC.
In releasing the information via Wikileaks, Assange conspired with Chelsea Manning, a trans-identifying man and former U.S. military intel officer. While originally sentenced to 35 years in prison, Manning’s sentence was commuted by former President Obama in the waning weeks of his presidency.
Assange is expected to appear in court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S.-controlled territory, at around 9:00 a.m. local time on Wednesday, according to a letter issued by the DOJ. The islands are in close proximity to Australia — Assange’s home country — where he is expected to return following his court hearing and subsequent release. According to the BBC, the plea deal will allow Assange to spend “no time in US custody and … receive credit for the time spent incarcerated in the UK.”
Assange’s wife told Reuters
