President Joe Biden‘s decision to reach a plea deal with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is being slammed as a ‘miscarriage of justice’ as the infamous leaker was released from a British jail and allowed to return home to Australia.
Assange is expected to plead guilty to an Espionage Act charge of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defense information, according to the U.S. Justice Department in a letter filed in court.
Donald Trump‘s former vice president Mike Pence railed against the agreement in a post on X.
‘Julian Assange endangered the lives of our troops in a time of war and should have been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,’ the former Indiana governor wrote.
‘The Biden administration’s plea deal with Assange is a miscarriage of justice and dishonors the service and sacrifice of the men and women of our Armed Forces and their families.’
‘There should be no plea deals to avoid prison for anyone that endangers the security of our military or the national security of the United States. Ever.’
A screen grab captured from a video shows a vehicle carrying Wikileaks founder Julian Assange as he is being released from a UK maximum security prison
The news of Assange’s release was largely celebrated by anti-establishment figures in US politics including independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
RFK Jr called the news that Assange pleaded guilty to his crimes ‘bad news’ and a ‘big blow to freedom of the press’ while saluting the Australian as a ‘generational hero.’
‘Julian Assange struck a plea deal and will go free! I am overjoyed. He’s a generational hero,’ RFK Jr. wrote. The Kennedy family member said that if elected as president, he would build a statue of Assange and fellow leaker in Edward Snowden in Washington DC.
Meanwhile broadcaster, Tucker Carlson, who interviewed Assange in November tweeted a photo of the activist with the caption: ‘A good man, finally free. The tide is turning.’ In a follow-up message, Carlson urged his supporters to celebrate Assange’s release by acquiring his branded crypto-currency.
Far-right activist Jack Posobiac wrote on TruthSocial: ‘Julian Assange just entered the election.’
Controversial Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene also celebrated the news posting a video of Assange’s car headed to London’s Stansted Airport with the message: ‘What an incredible sight.’
It wasn’t just figures on the right who were in celebratory mood following the news.
‘My dear brother Julian Assange is free! We struggled, fought, and prayed for many years for this wonderful moment,’ Professor Cornell West tweeted.
‘He also should be pardoned immediately because he committed no crime.’
‘He simply exposed the barbaric crimes of the American empire! We must free all of our other political prisoners such as my dear brothers Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier and Jamil Abdullah al-Amin.’
Independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr has called for a statue of Assange to be built in Washington DC
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called the sight of Assange leaving prison an ‘incredible sight’
Tucker Carlson also celebrated the news, he interviewed Assange back in November 2023
Left-wing activist Dr. Cornel West was also in a celebratory mood on X after news of Assange’s release was made public
Medea Benjamin of the ‘left-wing’ protest group Code Pink greeted the news with joy.
‘After being deprived of his freedom for 14 years, Julian Assange will FINALLY be free. His “crime” was exposing state crimes, including US war crimes . His immense sacrifice was for all of us who care about truth and freedom and an end to war.’
However, Pence’s viewpoint was echoed by former CIA analyst Gail Helt who explicitly stated: ‘Folks. Julian Assange is not a hero.’
‘He is a despicable Russian asset who harmed hundreds of people and dismissed them like they didn’t matter.’
‘I’m okay with the plea agreement because I hope it means I’ll see his name in my social media feeds a lot less, but let’s not venerate the man. He caused great harm.’
In a statement posted on X, WikiLeaks said Assange boarded a plane and departed Monday after leaving the British prison where he has spent the last five years.
WikiLeaks applauded the announcement of the deal, saying it was grateful for ‘all who stood by us, fought for us, and remained utterly committed in the fight for his freedom.’
‘WikiLeaks published groundbreaking stories of government corruption and human rights abuses, holding the powerful accountable for their actions. As editor-in-chief, Julian paid severely for these principles, and for the people’s right to know,’ WikiLeaks said.
Many in the US greeted the news of Assange’s release with joy
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has been lobbying for the United States to end its prosecution of Assange, told Parliament that an Australian envoy had flown with Assange from London.
‘Regardless of the views that people have about Mr. Assange’s activities, the case has dragged on for too long. There’s nothing to be gained by his continued incarceration and we want him brought home to Australia,’ Albanese added.
Assange has been heralded by many around the world as a hero who brought to light military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Among the files published by WikiLeaks was a video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.
But his reputation was also tarnished by rape allegations, which he has denied.
The Justice Department’s indictment unsealed in 2019 accused Assange of encouraging and helping U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks published in 2010.
Prosecutors had accused Assange of damaging national security by publishing documents that harmed the U.S. and its allies and aided its adversaries.
Prosecutors said in a charging document filed in connection with the plea agreement that Assange conspired with Manning to receive and obtain documents, notes and other writings related to the national defense and to ‘willfully communicate’ those records.
Assange has been detained in one of the UK’s most high-security prisons since April 2019. He is pictured here in May 2019
The document takes care to note that Assange was ‘not a United States citizen, did not possess a U.S. security clearance, and did not have authorization to possess, access, or control documents, writings, or notes relating to the national defense of the United States, including classified information.’
The case was lambasted by press advocates and Assange supporters.
Federal prosecutors defended it as targeting conduct that went way beyond that of a journalist gathering information, amounting to an attempt to solicit, steal and indiscriminately publish classified government documents.
The plea agreement comes months after President Joe Biden said he was considering a request from Australia to drop the U.S. push to prosecute Assange.
The White House was not involved in the decision to resolve Assange’s case, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the case and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Assange made headlines in 2016 after his website published Democratic emails that prosecutors say were stolen by Russian intelligence operatives.
He was never charged in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, but the inquiry laid bare in stark detail the role that the hacking operation played in interfering in that year’s election on behalf of then-Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Despite the allegations of horrific treatment at the hands of the Ecuadorian embassy, he was dragged out by the Met Police in 2019 during Operation Pelican, and jailed for skipping bail
During the Obama administration, Justice Department officials mulled charges for Assange but were unsure a case would hold up in court and were concerned it could be hard to justify prosecuting him for acts similar to those of a conventional journalist.
The posture changed in the Trump administration, however, with former Attorney General Jeff Sessions in 2017 calling Assange’s arrest a priority.
Assange’s family and supporters have said his physical and mental health have suffered during more than a decade of legal battles.
Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012 and was granted political asylum after courts in England ruled he should be extradited to Sweden as part of a rape investigation in the Scandinavian country.
He was arrested by British police after Ecuador’s government withdrew his asylum status in 2019 and then jailed for skipping bail when he first took shelter inside the embassy.
Although Sweden eventually dropped its sex crimes investigation because so much time had elapsed, Assange had remained in London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison during the extradition battle with the U.S.
