WikiLeaks Founder Agrees to Plead Guilty
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has agreed to plead guilty to one count of violating U.S. espionage law, prosecutors revealed in court documents on Monday. He is scheduled to appear in a U.S. federal court in the Northern Mariana Islands this week, where he is expected to be sentenced to time served, allowing him to return home to Australia.
Key events in Assange’s life
July 1971 – Assange is born in Townsville, Australia, to parents involved in theater. As a teenager, he gains a reputation as a computer programmer. In 1995, he is fined for computer hacking but avoids prison on the condition he does not offend again.
2006 – Assange founds WikiLeaks, creating an internet-based “dead letter drop” for leakers of classified or sensitive information.
April 5, 2010 – WikiLeaks releases a leaked video from a U.S. helicopter showing an airstrike that killed civilians in Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff.
July 25, 2010 – WikiLeaks releases more than 91,000 documents, mostly secret U.S. military reports about the Afghanistan war.
October 2010 – WikiLeaks releases 400,000 classified military files chronicling the Iraq war. The next month, it releases thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables, including candid views of foreign leaders and blunt assessments of security threats.
November 18, 2010 – A Swedish court orders Assange’s arrest on sex crime allegations, which he denies. He is arrested in Britain the next month on a European arrest warrant but freed on bail.
February 2011 – London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court orders Assange’s extradition to Sweden. He appeals.
June 14, 2012 – The British Supreme Court rejects Assange’s final appeal. Five days later, he takes refuge in Ecuador’s embassy in London and seeks political asylum, which Ecuador grants in August 2012.
May 19, 2017 – Swedish prosecutors discontinue their investigation, saying it is impossible to proceed while Assange is in the Ecuadorian embassy.
April 11, 2019 – After Ecuador revokes his political asylum, Assange is carried out of the embassy and arrested. He is sentenced on May 1 to 50 weeks in prison by a British court for skipping bail. He completes the sentence early but remains in jail pending extradition hearings.
May 13, 2019 – Swedish prosecutors reopen their investigation and say they will seek Assange’s extradition.
June 11, 2019 – The U.S. Justice Department formally asks Britain to extradite Assange to the United States to face charges that he conspired to hack U.S. government computers and violated an espionage law.
November 19, 2019 – Swedish prosecutors drop their investigation, saying the evidence is not strong enough to bring charges, in part because of the passage of time.
February 21, 2020 – A London court begins the first part of extradition hearings.
January 4, 2021 – A British judge rules that Assange should not be extradited to the U.S. to face criminal charges, citing his mental health problems and risk of suicide.
December 10, 2021 – The U.S. wins an appeal against the ruling after a judge is satisfied with a U.S. package of assurances about the conditions of Assange’s detention.
March 14, 2022 – Britain’s Supreme Court denies Assange permission to appeal against the decision to extradite him to the United States.
March 23, 2022 – Assange marries his long-term partner Stella Moris, the mother of his two children fathered inside the Ecuadorian embassy, inside a British high-security prison.
June 17, 2022 – Britain orders Assange’s extradition to the United States, prompting Assange to appeal.
June 2023 – A judge at London’s High Court rules Assange has no legal grounds to appeal.
February 20, 2024 – Assange launches what his supporters say will be his final attempt to prevent extradition.
March 26, 2024 – The extradition is put on hold when the court says the U.S. must provide assurances that Assange will not face a potential death penalty.
May 20, 2024 – The High Court gives Assange permission to launch a full appeal against his extradition on grounds that, as a foreign national on trial, he might not be able to rely on the First Amendment right to free speech that U.S. citizens enjoy.
June 24, 2024 – The U.S. Justice Department and Assange reveal a deal in which he will plead guilty to one criminal count and be sentenced to time served.
