Jullian Assange agrees to plead guilty

[BearClause]

He's currently in a British prison while they were deciding his possible extradition to the United States to face charges.  Apparently he's going to get time served (in the UK) as his punishment and will be allowed to return to his native Australia.

www.bbc.com/news/articles/crgggyvp0j9o
According to CBS, the BBC's US partner, Assange will spend no time in US custody and will receive credit for the time spent incarcerated in the UK.

Assange will return to Australia, according to a letter from the justice department.

The deal - which will see him plead guilty to one charge - is expected to be finalised in a court in the Northern Mariana Islands on Wednesday, 26 June.

Interesting.  Apparently they have a single active judge who sits for a 10-year term, and isn't considered an Article III judge.  Not sure how they would have had jurisdiction.  OK - found an article on Politico that explains it (kinda).  Apparently he's being accommodated there because that's the closest federal court to Australia.

www.politico.com/news/2024/06/24/julian-assange-plea-deal-00164763
The unusual venue reflects Assange’s unwillingness to return voluntarily to the continental U.S., according to a letter Justice Department prosecutors posted on a court docket. The radical transparency activist harbors a deep distrust of the U.S. government, with he and his allies repeatedly accusing U.S. officials of plotting to have him killed with a drone.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nmid.6473/gov.uscourts.nmid.6473.3.0.pdf



Looked up who the judge is.  She's a native of the Northern Mariana Islands and a UC Berkeley graduate.

[mikegarrison]

I am pretty sure the US has never killed anyone with a drone IN THE US, which makes it seem like if you are afraid the US will kill you with a drone, maybe the US is where you physically want to be?

[BearClause]

Wasn't sure if he had to make a personal appearance, but it looks like he's on his way to the court in the Northern Mariana Islands.  It sounds like the court location was a specific negotiation so that he wouldn't need to be in an actual US state.

---

apnews.com/article/assange-justice-department-plea-wikileaks-saipan-australia-00eb380879ff636cc9b916f82f82ed40
A plane with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange departed Bangkok after refueling Tuesday and he is on the way to Saipan to enter a plea deal with the U.S. government that will free him and resolve the legal case over the publication of a trove of classified documents.

The chartered flight from London that Assange’s wife, Stella, confirmed was carrying her husband left Don Mueang International Airport, according to the Flightradar24 plane tracking app. The official WikiLeaks account on X said Assange was heading toward Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific, where he’s scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.

[BearClause]

Looks like the judge is going to accept the terms and he'll walk out. It was a bit unusual in that the sentencing was expedited, but I think that was requested by the DoJ.

www.theguardian.com/media/live/2024/jun/26/julian-assange-live-news-wikileaks-founder-lands-on-us-island-of-saipan-for-district-court-sentencing#top-of-blog

[mikegarrison]

Jun 25, 2024 21:01:01 GMT -5 BearClause said:

Looks like the judge is going to accept the terms and he'll walk out. It was a bit unusual in that the sentencing was expedited, but I think that was requested by the DoJ.

It was a plea deal, with everything all pre-arranged. I think the judge is not bound to accept the deal, but it seems that she did.

[BearClause]

Jun 25, 2024 21:04:44 GMT -5 mikegarrison said:

Jun 25, 2024 21:01:01 GMT -5 BearClause said:

Looks like the judge is going to accept the terms and he'll walk out. It was a bit unusual in that the sentencing was expedited, but I think that was requested by the DoJ.

It was a plea deal, with everything all pre-arranged. I think the judge is not bound to accept the deal, but it seems that she did.

Ask Hunter Biden how a deal can fall apart.  That being said, this seemed to be a fairly simple process.  I would have been shocked if the judge had decided to throw away the deal.

[ironhammer]

Jun 25, 2024 21:11:30 GMT -5 BearClause said:

Jun 25, 2024 21:04:44 GMT -5 mikegarrison said:

It was a plea deal, with everything all pre-arranged. I think the judge is not bound to accept the deal, but it seems that she did.

Ask Hunter Biden how a deal can fall apart.  That being said, this seemed to be a fairly simple process.  I would have been shocked if the judge had decided to throw away the deal.

There were certain issues with the Hunter case, which didn't apply to the Assange case. 

[mikegarrison]

So Assange was arguing that he lost 14 years of his freedom over this, counting all the time he was hiding out in the Ecuadorian embassy. But the US and the judge only accepted as "time served" the 62 months he was in prison while the extradition was in process. But the judge also noted that Chelsea Manning only served about 7 years actually in prison, so his 62 months are roughly equivalent to what Manning served. That was apparently part of the judge's reasoning in accepting the "time served" agreement.

[ironhammer]

Jun 25, 2024 22:05:35 GMT -5 mikegarrison said:

So Assange was arguing that he lost 14 years of his freedom over this, counting all the time he was hiding out in the Ecuadorian embassy. But the US and the judge only accepted as "time served" the 62 months he was in prison while the extradition was in process. But the judge also noted that Chelsea Manning only served about 7 years actually in prison, so his 62 months are roughly equivalent to what Manning served. That was apparently part of the judge's reasoning in accepting the "time served" agreement.

"Hiding in a foreign embassy" isn't considered imprisonment in the strict legal technical sense, so no surprise the judge didn't count that...I think.