Reuters:
WikiLeaks founder Julian A**ss**ange heads to Australia after U.S. guilty plea
June 26, 2024, 1:23 PM GMT+10
WikiLeaks founder Julian A*ss**ange walks outside United States District Court following a hearing, in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, U.S., June 26, 2024. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands, June 26 (Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian A**ss*ange walked free on Wednesday from a court on the U.S. Pacific island territory of Saipan after pleading guilty to violating U.S. espionage law in a deal that allowed him to head straight home to Australia.
WikiLeaks founder Julian A*ss**ange walks outside United States District Court following a hearing, in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, U.S., June 26, 2024. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands, June 26 (Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian A**ss*ange walked free on Wednesday from a court on the U.S. Pacific island territory of Saipan after pleading guilty to violating U.S. espionage law in a deal that allowed him to head straight home to Australia.
His release ends a 14-year legal saga in which A*&ss^ange spent more than five years in a British high-security jail and seven years in asylum at the Ecuadorean embassy in London battling extradition to the U.S., where he faced 18 criminal charges.
During the three-hour hearing, As**s(ange pleaded guilty to one criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified national defence documents but said he had believed the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, which protects free speech, shielded his activities.
"Working as a journalist I encouraged my source to provide information that was said to be classified in order to publish that information," he told the court.
"I believed the First Amendment protected that activity but I accept that it was ... a violation of the espionage statute."
Chief U.S. District Judge Ramona V. Manglona accepted his guilty plea and released him due to time already served in a British jail.
"We firmly believe that Mr. A*s^sange never should have been charged under the Espionage Act and engaged in (an) exercise that journalists engage in every day," his U.S. lawyer, Barry Pollack, told reporters outside the court.
WikiLeaks' work would continue, he said.
His U.K. and Australian lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, thanked the Australian government for its years of diplomacy in securing As**sange's release.
"It is a huge relief to Julian A%ss$ange, to his family, to his friends, to his supporters and to us and to everyone who believes in free speech around the world that he can now return home to Australia and be reunited with his family," she said.
WikiLeaks' work would continue, he said.
His U.K. and Australian lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, thanked the Australian government for its years of diplomacy in securing As**sange's release.
"It is a huge relief to Julian A%ss$ange, to his family, to his friends, to his supporters and to us and to everyone who believes in free speech around the world that he can now return home to Australia and be reunited with his family," she said.
I remember you featured one of the Twitter files expose, exclusive on X.
ReplyDeleteHere is someone who collate all the parts under one common for easy reference. He provided an overview to each part, written by different writer/journalist.
Regards
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https://open.substack.com/pub/jordansather/p/running-list-of-all-twitter-files?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=27ocwo
Here is a running list of all Twitter Files releases through March 18th, 2023.
There have been 19 parts so far.
Six independent journalists have been given access to Twitter’s files related to censorship and government collusion by Elon Musk, and they have been releasing threaded reports of their investigations on Twitter - Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, Bari Weiss, Lee Fang, David Zweig, and Alex Berenson. (Using Twitter to expose Twitter, poetic!)
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