Julian Assange pleads guilty, leaves courtroom a free man
- Reference: 1719385365
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/06/26/assange_pleads_guilty_sentenced_freed/
- Source link:
The founder of WikiLeaks on Wednesday appeared in the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands before the Honorable Ramona V Manglona, who asked how he pled to Conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information – a single charge rather than the [1]18 the US department of Justice previously hoped to bring.
Assange reportedly responded "Guilty to the information" – as anticipated as part of a [2]plea deal that emerged on Monday, under which he would admit guilt to one charge in return for his freedom.
[3]
Judge Manglona accepted that plea as an admission of guilt, ordered a short recess, then heard arguments from a US government lawyer who suggested a sentence of 62 months was appropriate – again, as expected under the US government's deal with Assange.
[4]
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The Judge duly agreed, noting that Assange had already served that amount of time in UK jails, and that he would therefore leave the court a free man.
She also wished him happy birthday in advance for next Wednesday and said: "I hope there will be some peace restored."
[6]
Assange has had little peace since 2010, when two important elements of his story took place: WikiLeaks started to publish leaks of US material, and Swedish authorities issued a European arrest warrant regarding allegations of sexual assault.
US authorities were enraged by the material WikiLeaks published, as it contained diplomatic cables, sensitive material pertaining to national security, and the notorious "Collateral Murder" video depicting a US helicopter crew attacking and killing Iraqi civilians.
After the publication of those leaks, Assange feared that if he appeared in a Swedish court US authorities would attempt to extradite him. By then back in the UK, he appealed his extradition to Sweden to face the sexual assault allegations and was [7]granted bail on condition he reside in a certain place and regularly report to police.
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But in 2012, Assange broke conditions of his bail and holed up Ecuador's UK embassy after being granted asylum. He remained there until 2019. In the intervening years, Sweden dropped its case – but US authorities prepared an indictment that would mean UK authorities could arrest him if he left the embassy.
[9]Julian Assange to go free in guilty plea deal with US
[10]US govt: Julian Assange tried to recruit hacker to steal hush-hush dirt and we should know – the hacker was an informant
[11]US offers Julian Assange time in Australian prison instead of American supermax if he loses London extradition fight
[12]US 'considering' end to Assange prosecution bid
Ecuador eventually revoked Assange's asylum and he left the embassy, prompting his arrest by UK authorities for breaching his bail conditions.
Once jailed on that charge, US extradition attempts commenced in earnest, leading to numerous cases that reached a crescendo in May 2024 when the High Court [13]ruled Assange could appeal his extradition to the US.
That outcome, it appears, landed with a thud in Washington. Officials, realizing that years more litigation was likely, began to pursue an alternative resolution to the case. By that time president Biden had already said he was "considering" an end to the case against Assange.
Aussie back channel
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese today suggested his government had been urging US officials to resolve the Assange situation.
At a press conference today Albanese said of Assange's hearing "This isn't something that has happened in the last 24 hours. This is something that has been considered, patient, worked through in a calibrated way." Albanese stated that in all his time as opposition leader and PM – dating back to May 2019 – "I've been very clear … that regardless of your views about Mr Assange's activities, his case has dragged on for too long. There is nothing to be gained from his continued incarceration, and we want him brought home to Australia."
Assange arrived in the Mariana Islands earlier on Wednesday after flying from the UK, with a brief stopover in Thailand. He quickly left the islands and at the time of writing was reportedly [14]aboard a private jet that is evidently bound for Canberra, Australia's capital.
Assange's wife, Stella, has urged supporters to help pay the £520,000 ($660,000) cost of her husband's flights and other recovery expenses with a [15]crowdfunding campaign .
Ms Assange has also said Julian intends to recuperate and enjoy the company of his children and nature in the short term. She's also pushing for a pardon – advancing the argument that he is a journalist to be celebrated for exposing uncomfortable truths.
Others feel he is a traitor, or else a journalist whose sloppiness deserves censure. In late 2015, WikiLeaks published Saudi Arabian documents without redacting personal information describing vulnerable people. It then exposed the details of donors to the US Democratic Party in the [16]2016 dump of emails from the DNC's campaign and communications department. The timing of that dump – which landed weeks before the US election and showed presidential candidate Hilary Clinton in a poor light – has shaped another common opinion of Assange: a figure exploited by the Kremlin as part of its attempts to meddle in the 2016 US presidential election.
Assange's admission of guilt to an offence under the US Espionage Act has created another persona: the unfortunate harbinger of a new era of secrecy. That law was not intended to be used against journalists, so the conclusion of his case is therefore seen by some as the beginning of a new time of danger for us all. A precedent has been set – that certain types of journalism won't be tolerated. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/25/assange_wikileaks_sabu/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/25/julian_assange_freed_plea_deal/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZnvmwUdRZdOUwTsrbFtGUgAAAE4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZnvmwUdRZdOUwTsrbFtGUgAAAE4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZnvmwUdRZdOUwTsrbFtGUgAAAE4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZnvmwUdRZdOUwTsrbFtGUgAAAE4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2010/12/14/assange_bail_appeal/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZnvmwUdRZdOUwTsrbFtGUgAAAE4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/25/julian_assange_freed_plea_deal/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/25/assange_wikileaks_sabu/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/08/assange_us_to_appeal_extradition_ruling/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/11/biden_considering_end_to_assange_case/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/20/julian_assange_appeal_extradition/
[14] https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/VJT199/history/20240626/0200Z/PGSN/YSCB
[15] https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/free-julian-assange
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2016/07/22/wikileaks_keep_fighting_the_man_by_er_publishing_the_personal_details_of_ordinary_citizens/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Traitor?
Yes, I agree. I call him lots of very unflattering things, but not a traitor.
Re: Traitor?
Not that I agree either but Traitor to the West.
Which seen through American values.. You can work out why they believe it
Re: Traitor?
traitor
noun
a person who betrays someone or something, such as a friend, cause, or principle. "he was a traitor to his own class"
"certain types of journalism won't be tolerated"
Releasing confidential information without doing a proper job of protecting the names of people involved has never been tolerated, it's just that Assange was the first to do it.
I would have accepted his leaks without problem if he had sought to protect the names of the people from public scrutiny. That would have been a demonstration of US Government shenanigans.
Instead, what we got was a lot of people in sudden danger who needed to flee in urgency, many operations that were exposed and failed, or worse, and the fact that Assange paid for all that with the stress and confinement he got is only justice.
A journalist is not a judge. Leak curated info about government affairs, no problem, but you cite names when the person has been arrested or is being investigated officially. Then you can because you're reporting an ongoing affair, but you do not create the affair and name the people involved.
A proper journalist does not do that.
Re: "certain types of journalism won't be tolerated"
The unredacted release was not intended, Wikileaks realised they had too much information to go through themselves so they contacted some freelance journalists and gave them access to the Wikileaks servers so they could help go through it, it was one of those freelancers who hit publish on the unredacted information.
That is not an excuse. It's a reason, but not an excuse.
Re: "certain types of journalism won't be tolerated"
Had they not heard of authorisation? Poor IT security is no excuse.
Re: "certain types of journalism won't be tolerated"
fuck the putin/trump stooge. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/07/wikileaks-cia-documents-us-russia-conflict
and fuck you for your username https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spastic_(word)
Re: "certain types of journalism won't be tolerated"
Ah yes the classic defence of deflection.
"Don't look at my war crimes, look at Russia's war crimes instead".
Or how about we be mature and hold ourselves to a higher standard and look at everyone's war crimes, just a suggestion.
Re: "certain types of journalism won't be tolerated"
A journalist who releases videos of collateral murder, then releases names leading directly to their murder, is a vile hypocrite. Sadly, vile hypocrisy is stock-in-trade for journalists. Also, like senior politicians and certain government services, they like to argue that - and act as if - they are above the law. They are not.
fuck him, he acted as a putin stooge
So too has Nigel Farage. A perfect example of how the far left and far right are just the same bitch cross-dressing.
What the fuck has Farage or Assange got to do with the left?
Why are you being so political here? So, both extremes are bad. Well, bravo for that, professor. The University awaits your next stunning analysis.
Fartrage is far-right nutter.
no so sure assange is far left, more like center right fuckwit
I am rather concerned that "espionage" apparently applies to a foreign citizen in a foreign country, and that the UK has set a legal precedent that they will extradite people for this. Waiting for Germany to request that GCHQ employees are extradited to Germany for espionage over hacking Angela's phone.
Also not normally a supporter of extra-judicial justice, however given that this all started with him running away from rape/sexual assault/whatever you call it charges because he didn't want a public court proceeding where his scumbag nature was exposed... He literally did this to himself running away from a slap on the wrist because he didn't want to face the consequences of his actions...
Not to mention the £100's of thousands he suckered out of his UK supporters for the bail he then jumped....
Toerag from start to finish.
He didn't run away, he was interviewed by Swedish police and was told they would not be charging him. Before leaving he asked the Swedish police if they wanted to interview him again and they said no, he asked if he could leave Sweden and they said yes. Then once he leaves Sweden they charged him and requested extradition, he and his lawyers offered to meet with Swedish police to give an interview and they once again said they didn't want to interview him.
The US's plan has worked perfectly here, if you want to muddy and discredit somebody then just throw a fake rape allegation them. Now all the talk is about these allegations and not about the video evidence of misconduct by the US military. The crew of that Apache that gunned down a load of kids have never been charged by the way.
I upvoted you for your second paragraph, but I don't understand your issue in the first paragraph. If someone from any country stole and released British secrets, and was then found in a country with which we have extradition arrangements, would you not expect them to be extradited to the UK for trial? I don't think that's even controversial.
Thank Fudge thats over
Let's hope we never hear from the egomaniacal little scrote again.
(Except for when he inevitably dumps the PR decoys aka the Wife and Sprogs).
For all the wrongness of the USA's actions I was spectacularly uncomfortable hanging something as important press freedom off such a tarnished and self serving person.
Re: Thank Fudge thats over
Finally an anti-Assange comment I can upvote. He's a man with allegedly a history of deliberately breaking or removing condoms during consensual sex - an unconsensual act. However, as stated in these comments, Sweden dropped the case so he left Sweden. Then, almost certainly under pressure from the US, Sweden decided to restart the case. I can understand Assange's actions in trying to avoid a trip to the US for the past decade. The US government are the bad guys throughout this and publishing leaked documents is a public service. I wish that I could be on the side of defending press freedoms without having to also be on this twat's side but thems the breaks.
First Amendment rights….
An interesting part of this, is that whilst a change in Australian politics played a big part, in trying to charge an Australian under US law, the question of First Amendment rights also applying to non-US nationals was also raised. It seems rather than risk contesting this and loosing, the US prosecutors stepped back and to all intents and purposes have accepted the principle… which will impact future attempts to extradite non-US citizens to stand trial in the US…
Glad to see all the missinfo and untruths are still fresh in peoples heads.
Before you ask, nope I won't link to any of it, if you really wanted to know you'd have already read it by now. It's just interesting to see the level BS people still believe around all this.
I don't know what you're on about and since You decline to say your comment is sorta useless.
Assange was no journalist in my book. He was a gamer, a blogger, someone out to get attention, and a tool of the Kremlin, whose antics ("sloppiness" in the article) had concrete negative consequences for millions of people. Where would he be now if he had been facing the "justice" of a repressive regime? Gulaged to death? Novichoked? A grenade in his private jet? Accidentally defenestrated? Khashoggied into bite-size bits? He got the best deal, by far.
A dangerous precedent to set
The conviction is for (what El Reg does):
"obtaining newsworthy information from a source,
communicating it to the public, and
expressing an openness to receiving more highly newsworthy information."
Not my words but that of the EFF
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/eff-statement-assange-plea-deal
Re: A dangerous precedent to set
Tell that to the people he doxxed in his dumps.
My dislike of Assange (quite apart from the fact that I think he's a self-aggrandizing twat who wants attention) is not what he did, but how he went about it. No redaction (whether that was an accident or not is irrelevant, it happened), selective leaking and blatantly making himself the story. None of those are the actions of a responsible journalist.
Some sympathy for the rapist
Just of the anti US sentiment really. There's also perhaps some arguable precedents here that you'd shudder to see applied to a non-rapist.
fuck the putin/trump stooge
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/07/wikileaks-cia-documents-us-russia-conflict
huh
What an enormous waste of time and money. I expect he'll be back to make a nuisance of himself again soon.
Traitor?
I thought a traitor was a citizen who sold, or otherwise disclosed, secrets of their mother country.
It puzzles me, therefore, why many (presumably left ponders) call Assange a traitor? He is, after all, apparently an Australian....