So farewell, then, Julian Assange. Earlier this morning, the WikiLeaks founder pleaded guilty to conspiring with Chelsea Manning, at that time a US Army intelligence analyst, to unlawfully obtain and disclose classified documents relating to the defence of the United States.
At today’s hearing, Assange admitted his role in a conspiracy to violate the US Espionage Act. He was sentenced to 62 months, reflecting the time he had served on remand in a high-security London prison while challenging extradition. The High Court had been planning to hear an appeal after the US government seemed curiously reluctant to provide assurances that the judges had invited.
Assange is now flying to his native Australia. As part of a plea agreement — or plea bargain, as the arrangement is sometimes called — he is not allowed to visit the US without permission.
The US Department of Justice said that Assange’s guilty plea concluded a criminal matter dating back to March 2018, when he was first indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia. There, and in superseding indictments, Assange was charged with conspiring with Manning, who then held “Top Secret” US security clearance, to further Manning’s unlawful acquisition and transmission of bulk classified information. This included Manning’s use of a government computer to illegally download hundreds of thousands of classified documents and transmit them without authorisation to WikiLeaks.
After obtaining information from Manning and aware of the harm that publication would cause, said the justice department, Assange disclosed it.
The WikiLeaks founder was detained in London for 62 months while he contested extradition. As part of the plea agreement, Assange was flown to the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands to enter his guilty plea and be sentenced in a US courtroom.
This choice of venue, the justice department said, reflected his opposition to travelling to the continental United States and the proximity of this federal district court to Australia, Assange’s country of citizenship.
The Department of Justice added:
Beginning in late 2009, Assange and WikiLeaks actively solicited United States classified information, including by publishing a list of “most wanted leaks” that sought, among other things, bulk classified documents.
As set forth in the public charging documents, Assange actively solicited and recruited people who had access, authorised or otherwise, to classified information and were willing to provide that information to him and WikiLeaks—and also solicited hackers who could obtain unauthorised access to classified information through computer network intrusions. Assange publicly encouraged his prospective recruits to obtain the information he desired by any means necessary, including hacking and theft, and to send that information to Assange at WikiLeaks.
Between January 2010 and May 2010, in the course of the conspiracy with Assange, Manning used US government computer systems to download hundreds of thousands of documents and reports, many of them classified at the Secret level and relating to the national defence, which signified that unauthorised disclosure could cause serious damage to United States national security.
In total, Manning downloaded four nearly complete US government databases that contained, among other things, approximately 90,000 Afghanistan war-related significant activity reports, 400,000 Iraq war-related significant activity reports, 800 Joint Task Force Guantanamo detainee assessment briefs, and 250,000 US Department of State cables. Manning also downloaded files regarding rules of engagement in the Iraq war, most of which were classified at the Secret level and which delineated the circumstances and limitations under which United States forces would initiate or conduct combat engagement with other forces.
After downloading digital reams of classified documents and files, Manning electronically sent them to Assange to be publicly posted on WikiLeaks’s website. During Manning’s bulk exfiltration and passage of classified materials to WikiLeaks, Manning and Assange communicated regularly via online platforms about Manning’s progress and what classified information Assange wanted. For example, after sending the classified Joint Task Force Guantanamo detainee assessment briefs to Assange, Manning told Assange “thats [sic] all I really have got left.” To encourage Manning to continue to take classified documents from the United States and provide them to Assange and WikiLeaks without authorisation, Assange replied, “curious eyes never run dry in my experience”.
In or about 2010 and 2011, Assange publicly disclosed via the WikiLeaks website hundreds of thousands of documents that Manning had taken without authorisation and given to him, including approximately 75,000 Afghanistan war-related significant activity reports, classified up to the Secret level; 400,000 Iraq war-related significant activity reports, classified up to the Secret level; 800 Joint Task Force Guantanamo detainee assessment briefs, classified up to the Secret level; and over 100,000 State Department cables, some of which were classified up to the Secret level.
Unlike news organisations that published redacted versions of some of the classified documents that Assange obtained from Manning and then shared with those organisations, Assange and WikiLeaks disclosed many of the raw classified documents without removing any personally identifying information. Specifically, in many instances, the classified documents Manning unlawfully provided to Assange were later released publicly by Assange and WikiLeaks in a raw or unredacted form that placed individuals who had assisted the US government at great personal risk.
Assange’s decision to reveal the names of human sources illegally shared with him by Manning created a grave and imminent risk to human life. For example, the State Department cables that WikiLeaks disseminated included information from journalists, religious leaders, human rights advocates and political dissidents who had chosen to provide information to the United States in confidence at significant risk to their own safety.
By publicly releasing these documents without redacting the names of human sources or other identifying information, Assange subjected these individuals to serious harm and arbitrary detention. Assange even acknowledged in public statements that he knew that publicly disclosing unredacted classified documents containing the names and other identifying information of people who had shared information with the US government in confidence could put those people at risk of harm.
In its statement, the US Departmenr of Justice acknowledged the help given in the UK by the National Crime Agency and the Crown Prosecution Service of England and Wales.
Foreign governments seeking the extradition of suspects and fugitives are represented by the CPS on a reciprocal basis. The UK pays for these governments to be legally represented on the understanding that they will support requests by the UK for extradition from their own countries.
The cost of representing the US — and Sweden which had previously requested Assange’s extradition to face questioning about contested sexual assault allegations — was substantial. That was made clear in a statement yesterday from Stephen Parkinson, who heads the CPS as director of public prosecutions.
He said:
Thirteen-and-a-half years and two extradition requests after he was first arrested, Julian Assange left the UK yesterday, following a bail hearing last Thursday held in private at his request.
I am proud of the way our extradition unit has dealt with this case. They have acted with expertise and skill, under international scrutiny, to provide legal advice to both the Swedish and US authorities.
This case has absorbed considerable time and resource from the criminal justice system over many years. The intended outcome of the plea agreement will be to accomplish the primary objective of delivering justice.
It will also save the continuing substantial resource outlay involved in litigating this matter further in England.
The CPS was first told in March that a plea agreement might be possible. Prosecutors then advised the United States how to give effect to the proposed agreement so that Assange could be released from UK custody and appear in person before a US federal judge. They also worked closely with the National Crime Agency to enable Assange to leave the UK safely in accordance with his wishes and those of the US government.
Comment
Assange’s wife Stella said yesterday that he would seek a pardon from the US government. It seems unlikely that this would be granted by the current administration.
I have discussed the case in a podcast for BBC News.