Wikileaks founder Julian Assange pled guilty last Wednesday to one count of violating the Espionage Act at a US federal courthouse in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, capping a years-long fight against legal charges that threatened to send him to prison for decades. In exchange for the plea, Assange was sentenced to time served, crediting his time spent in a British prison awaiting extradition.
Assange, who launched Wikileaks in 2006, was accused of conspiring with hackers to steal US state secrets to publish on the site. Defenders of Assange called the charges attacks on the rights of journalists. Materials made public on Wikileaks over the years included video of US servicemembers killing Reuters journalists in Iraq and hacked DNC emails during the 2016 election.
After pleading guilty, Assange travelled to his home country of Australia. Assange had faced the threat of arrest and prison since 2010, first over sexual assault charges in Sweden. While those were dropped in 2019, the US charged him with Espionage Act violations in 2018. He had taken refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London from 2012 until 2019, when he was expelled and quickly arrested by British authorities.
