WikiLeaks' Assange pleads guilty in deal with U.S. that secures his freedom, ends legal fight

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has pleaded guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that secures his liberty and concludes a drawn-out legal saga that raised divisive questions about press freedom and national security.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has pleaded guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that secures his liberty and concludes a drawn-out legal saga that raised divisive questions about press freedom and national security.

The plea was entered Wednesday morning in federal court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, an American commonwealth in the Pacific, that is relatively close to Assange's native Australia and that accommodated his desire to avoid setting foot inside the continental United States.

The deal required the iconoclastic internet publisher to admit guilt to a single felony count but also permitted him to return to Australia without any time in an American prison. He had been jailed in the United Kingdom since 2019, fighting extradition to the United States on an Espionage Act indictment that could have carried a lengthy prison sentence in the event of a conviction, and for seven years before that was holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

The conclusion enables both sides to claim a degree of satisfaction. The U.S. Justice Department, facing a defendant who had already served substantial jail time, was able to resolve -- without trial -- a case that raised thorny legal issues and that might never have reached a jury at all given the plodding pace of the extradition process.

Assange, for his part, signalled a begrudging contentment with the resolution, saying in court that though he believed the Espionage Act contradicted the First Amendment, he accepted the consequences of soliciting classified information from sources for publication.

Assange arrived at court in a dark suit, with a tie loosened around the collar, after flying from Britain on a charter plane accompanied by members of his legal team and Australian officials, including the top Australian diplomat in the U.K.

Inside the courthouse, he answered basic questions from U.S. District Judge Ramona Manglona, an appointee of former U.S. president Barack Obama, and appeared to listen intently. As a condition of his plea, he will be required to destroy information provided to WikiLeaks.