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CWA # 1357, 26 June 2024
Global Politics Early Bird
Julian Assange: The WikiLeaks founder pleads guilty, ending a long legal stand-off with the US

  Prajwal T V

What happened?
On 26 June, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks and an Australian editor, publisher, and activist, pleaded guilty in a US District Court hearing to a single felony charge of the 1917 Espionage Act for conspiring to illegally acquire and release classified national security documents. As part of his plea deal, he was released from the Belmarsh Prison in the UK and will have to destroy information provided to WikiLeaks. The agreement ends a long legal stand-off with the US. Assange’s hearing took place in a federal court in the US Pacific Island territory of Saipan and is now free to return to Australia as the 14-year long legal saga came to an end.

Supporters were fund-raising to cover the USD 520,000 cost of his travel back to Australia. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese welcomed the resolution, stating that Assange's prolonged detention was unjustified. The agreement is a closure to the decade-long legal struggle that began with Assange's controversial disclosures of classified documents in the 2010s marking the end of his long stand-off with the US authorities. 

What is the background?
Assange’s early hacking exploits included accessing unauthorised classified information that he believed the public deserved to see. At 35, Assange founded WikiLeaks, a platform that allows whistleblowers to publish sensitive information anonymously. Launched in 2006, it sought to promote global transparency by revealing corruption and official secrets. WikiLeaks rapidly began receiving and publishing submissions on a wide range of issues, including drone operations in Yemen, Peruvian oil scams, Arab corruption, and Tibetan uprisings in China. While leaks of this sort are becoming more regular now, WikiLeaks was a breakthrough in the late 2000s, operating as an open-source intelligence website unaffiliated with any government or region.

Wikileaks gained global attention in 2010 after Chelsea Manning, a 22-year-old American intelligence analyst stationed in Iraq, disclosed over 90,000 classified US military documents. These records disclosed classified information on US military operations, diplomacy, and intelligence, becoming the largest whistleblower case in history. The disclosures included undisclosed data on US misconducts during the Iraq War, including secret raids and heinous actions by US military personnel, such as the execution of Iraqi families. Contrary to official claims, the US military had documented deaths in Iraq, and civilian deaths were found to be significantly higher than earlier reported. It also included footage showing US helicopters attacking a group of Iraqis, including children and journalists, with callous remarks from the crew, firing on surrendering insurgents, justified by a rule against surrendering to aircraft. These documents exposed the deaths of 15,000 civilians and a culture of abuse and torture, which the US did not address.

In 2019, Assange was accused of 18 charges by a federal grand jury, for WikiLeaks’ publication of classified national security documents provided by Manning. If convicted, Assange could have faced up to 175 years in prison. The Ecuadorian government revoked Assange's citizenship, evicting him from their London embassy, where he had sought political asylum to avoid extradition to Sweden over sexual assault allegations, citing grievances such as interfering in other states’ affairs and personal misconduct. Subsequently, the London Metropolitan Police arrested him, after which he was held in Belmarsh, a high-security British prison, confined for 23 hours daily with limited exercise time while his legal team fought the US extradition efforts. His release was anticipated by signals from US President Joe Biden, who called for a rapid resolution. This came as the US Justice Department agreed to no additional prison time, acknowledging that Assange had already served over five years, longer than typical for similar offences in Britain. 

What does this mean?
Assange and his supporters have long argued that his efforts to release sensitive national security information were in the public interest, and that he deserved First Amendment protections akin to those given to investigative journalists. Assange's conviction under the Espionage Act is the first of its kind for what his supporters call basic journalistic actions. In 2021, civil liberties and human rights organisations urged the Biden administration to cease efforts to extradite and prosecute Assange, citing the case as a significant threat to fundamental freedom of expression. The press argued that Assange's actions were similar to routine journalistic actions necessary for informing the public on critical issues. However, US officials claimed that Assange's actions jeopardised national security, alleging that the information provided by Manning endangered soldiers and Iraqi civilian's lives, who were working with the military, complicating efforts to resist external threats.

Assange’s plea has prevented a judicial precedent that could have been dangerous to press freedom, despite marking the first conviction for journalistic efforts under the 1917 Espionage Act. This sets a troubling prosecutorial policy, suggesting that future US administrations might pursue similar cases against the press. These concerns have risen with the possibility of a second administration of former US President Donald Trump, due to his hostility towards the media. While the political resolution of Assange’s case is welcomed, the broader threat to press freedom remains unresolved, necessitating continued vigilance in its defence.

About the author

Prajwal T V is an Undergraduate Student at St Joseph's University, Bangalore.

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