WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has agreed to plead guilty to felony charges related to his reported role in one of the largest breaches of classified U.S. government material, according to newly filed federal court documents, as part of a deal with the Justice Department that will allow him to avoid prison time in the United States.
Under the terms of the new agreement, Justice Department prosecutors will seek a 62-month sentence – equivalent to the length of time Assange is serving in a high-security prison in London, as he fights extradition to the US.
The plea deal will take into account time already served, and allow Assange to immediately return to Australia, his home country.
However, the plea deal still has to be approved by a federal judge, but as of Monday morning, Assange had been released from a British prison, according to WikiLeaks.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, WikiLeaks noted that “Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of June 24, after spending 1901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and released at Stansted airport in the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK.”
A video uploaded by the group shows a black van driving down a highway followed by footage of Assange boarding the plane.
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A federal judge in the Northern Mariana Islands set a plea and sentencing hearing for Wednesday morning, according to the U.S. District Court there. Justice Department prosecutors had asked the court for the trial to take place on the same day as Assange refused to set foot on the continental US for his guilty plea, according to a letter from prosecutors.
The court on the islands is near Australia, where Assange is a citizen and is expected to return after the trial, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors told the judge they “anticipate that the defendant will plead guilty to the charges… and be sentenced by the Court for the offences.”
Assange is being pursued by US authorities for publishing classified military records provided by former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in 2010 and 2011.
He faces 18 counts from a 2019 indictment for his alleged role in the offense that carries a maximum sentence of up to 175 years in prison, although he is unlikely to be sentenced to the full term.
US officials alleged that Assange encouraged Manning to obtain thousands of pages of unfiltered US diplomatic cables that had potentially compromising confidential sources, critical activity reports related to the Iraq war, and information regarding Guantanamo Bay detainees.
President Joe Biden in recent months has touched on the possibility of a deal being pushed by Australian government officials to return Assange to Australia, although a National Security Council spokesman told CNN on Tuesday that the White House was not involved in the plea deal.
“This was an independent decision made by the Department of Justice and there was no White House involvement,” said National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson.
FBI and Justice Department officials opposed any deal that did not include Assange’s guilty plea.
Moreover, last month, a British court ruled that Assange has the right to appeal his final challenge to extradition to the US, handing him a victory in his years-long fight to avoid prosecution in America for his alleged crimes.
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