NMI District Court approves plea deal for WikiLeaks founder Assange

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange left Saipan a free man after pleading guilty to espionage before U.S. District Court Judge Ramona Manglona as part of a plea deal.

According to a request from the U.S. Department of Justice National Security Division, Counterintelligence and Export Control Section to the U.S.  District Court of the Northern Mariana Islands, Assange was expected to plead guilty to conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information relating to the national defense of the United States. Assange flew to Saipan, a trip that reportedly cost $500,000, to avoid being in the U.S. mainland and because it was closer to Australia, his country of citizenship, according to documents filed in District Court.

On X (formerly Twitter) WikiLeaks posts an urgent “emergency appeal for donations to cover massive cost of jet and recovery.”

The request states: “Julian Assange has embarked on flight VJT199 to Saipan. If all goes well it will bring him to freedom in Australia. But the flight comes at enormous cost: Julian will owe USD 520,000 which he is obligated to pay back to the Australian government for the charter flight to Saipan and onward to Australia. In addition, and after 14 years of detention, including five years in maximum security prison, Julian’s health is in dire need of recovery. We are launching an emergency appeal to seek donations to help him cover the flight debt and substantial funds to ensure his recovery and well-being and safety upon his arrival.”

Assange’s co-conspirator, Chelsea Manning, was a U.S. Army intelligence analyst who held a top-secret security clearance. She was deployed to forward Operating Base Hammer in Iraq.

According to documents filed in District Court, they conspired to obtain and disclose U.S. national defense information from at least 2009 through 2011 in violation of US Code Title 18, Section 793, “Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information”. Specific actions listed in documents included:

• Receiving and obtaining documents, writings, and notes connected with the national defense, including to secret materials

• Willfully communicating documents relating to the national defense, including documents classified up to the secret level, from persons having lawful possession of or access to such documents, to persons not entitled to receive them

• Willfully communicating documents relating to the national defense from persons in unauthorized possession of such documents to persons not entitled to receive them

“In furtherance of the conspiracy and to accomplish its objects, Assange and Manning committed lawful and unlawful overt acts,” according to documents.
Assange’s legal team, upon his arrival in Australia, spoke to the media. Attorney Barry J Pollack said with the plea deal just approved in the NMI District Court, Assange will be able to “go back to whatever life he chooses to build with (his wife) Stella and his family.”

He called the months-long negotiations leading to the plea deal “intense” saying they “were not close to any sort of a resolution until a few weeks ago.”

Pollack said included in the deal was Assange’s freedom.

“He’s not going to do any additional time in prison, he’s not going to do time under supervision, he’s not going to have a gag order,” Pollack said.

“Another significant point of negotiations was where the plea would be taken, Julian didn’t want to go to the United States. And obviously we negotiated Saipan under conditions where he would be released in the United Kingdom, come to Saipan not as a prisoner of the United States or the United Kingdom.”

The lawyer said another provision of the plea that was “very significant” was the U.S. agreed “they would not bring any other charges against Julian for any conduct, any publications, any news gathering, anything at all that occurred prior to the time of the plea.”

“This resolves any possible case that the United States could bring against Julian for any subject matter so that was obviously very significant to us,” Pollack said. mbj