The US Justice Department is considering whether to allow WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to plead guilty to a misdemeanor offense in order to avoid extradition to the US on espionage charges, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
The potential deal would see Assange plead guilty to mishandling classified information, with the five years he has already served in London’s Belmarsh Prison counting as his sentence, the unnamed sources told the newspaper.
Assange’s lawyers and US officials have held preliminary talks in recent months to sketch out a possible bargain, the sources said. However, Barry Pollack, a lawyer for the jailed journalist, told the newspaper that “there are no signs” that the department is ready to accept the deal.
If a deal were reached, it would end a legal battle in play for more than a decade. After his arrest by British police in 2010 for sexual offense allegations that he denied, Assange jumped bail in 2012 and was granted asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He was arrested again in 2019 when Ecuador revoked his asylum, and has remained in Belmarsh ever since.
The Justice Department unsealed an indictment against Assange on the day of his arrest, charging him with 17 counts of espionage. If extradited to the US and convicted, the former WikiLeaks boss faces up to 175 years in prison.
The charges stem from his publication of classified material obtained by whistleblowers, including Pentagon documents detailing alleged US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The UK Home Office approved his transfer to American custody in 2022, but Assange – now in poor health after nearly five years of solitary confinement – has filed repeated appeals, none of which have been successful. Last month, Britain’s High Court postponed a decision on granting Assange a final chance to appeal his extradition.
Washington’s use of the Espionage Act to prosecute Assange is controversial, as the Australian-born journalist published, but did not steal, the classified material in question. Former US President Barack Obama refused to press charges against Assange for this very reason, arguing that his activity was no different from that of any newspaper, and was therefore protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
With an election coming up this November, US President Joe Biden is keen to avoid the “political hot potato” of an extradited journalist arriving in Washington to face criminal prosecution, the Wall Street Journal wrote. Furthermore, American “prosecutors face diminishing odds that he would serve much more time even if he were convicted stateside,” the paper noted.
I saw this last night on X but at that point it wasn't very firmed up. It seems to make sense from the empire's point of view at least although this doesn't seem like things are too advanced:
"Barry Pollack, a lawyer for the jailed journalist, told the newspaper that “there are no signs” that the department is ready to accept the deal."
I could see them ending up offering him an Alford Plea or the equivalent where the defendant doesn't plead guilty but accepts that the state had enough evidence to convict them but that they chose not to. It's a massive cop-out they use to avoid having to admit jailing the wrong people for decades because the prosecutor's lied through their teeth and similar things (see "The West Memphis Three" for an example).
It's not always used that way; sometimes it's just to "speed things along" when someone is already going up the river and they want to get finality for a host of other charges.
If it's a case of him having to plead guilty I'm not sure he will do it as it sets a precedent he won't want to be involved in.
Keving Gosztola tweeted on this:
Basically, US officials chat to the press about some possible plea deal for Assange when he isn't guilty of any crime. If Assange's team signals it would never be acceptable, then it is Assange's fault that he remains in prison. Officials can say he wants to martyr himself.
It doesn't matter if a plea deal is even on the table or consists of a charge that could legitimately be brought against Assange. The bare fact that Assange won't allow a bad precedent for world press freedom is turned against him by way of making it seem like he's unreasonable
It's easy to see why the Biden administration might be keen not to have this on their plate in an election year given his massively negative ratings, Gaza, etc....no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party...So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
Re: There are reports of a plea deal negotiation for Assange
I don’t actually see how he can plead on charges brought by a US prosector from outside that prosecutor’s jurisdiction. And if this is possible, and he then pleads guilty or no contest to a charge in the US, it seems to create a slam dunk case for extradition, since he then either has a conviction or probation in the US whose sentence he has otherwise escaped - unless the sentence is time served in another jurisdiction.
Posted by RaskolnikovX on March 22, 2024, 9:47 am, in reply to "Caitlin on this "
...no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party...So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.