As negotiations to end the prolonged legal dispute between Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, and the United States approached a critical stage this spring, prosecutors presented his attorneys with a rather unconventional choice that one person involved thought sounded like a line from a Monty Python movie: “Guam or Saipan?” This decision was not a joke. Mr. Assange, who was concerned about facing lifelong imprisonment in the United States, had consistently maintained one condition for any plea deal: that he would never set foot in the country. On the other hand, the U.S. government insisted that Mr. Assange plead guilty to a felony for violating the Espionage Act, which required him to appear before a federal judge.
In April, a lawyer from the Justice Department’s national security division proposed a clever solution to break the deadlock: What about an American courtroom that was not actually located within mainland America? Mr. Assange, worn down by five years of confinement in a London prison, quickly recognized that this deal was the best he had ever been offered. Eventually, they settled on Saipan, one of the American-held islands in the Pacific, as the location for his plea deal.
This unusual turn of events marked the end of a long and bizarre legal journey that began when Mr. Assange, an ambitious hacker-activist, gained notoriety for revealing state secrets in the 2010s. The negotiations to secure Mr. Assange’s release were surprisingly amicable and efficient, driven by a mutual desire to end a stalemate that had left him in limbo and the Justice Department entangled in a protracted extradition battle.
By late 2023, senior officials at the Justice Department had determined that Mr. Assange, now 52, had already served a longer sentence than many others convicted of similar crimes. Despite facing multiple charges under the Espionage Act, Mr. Assange would likely have received a much shorter sentence if extradited, tried, and convicted.
The negotiations were also influenced by the Australian government’s pressure to reach a resolution due to Mr. Assange’s prolonged captivity. President Biden had indicated that the U.S. was considering Australia’s request to bring him back home. The agreement allowed Mr. Assange to leave for Australia after serving time in Saipan, where he was set to appear in court for a felony charge.
The deal, while criticized by free speech advocates, was seen as a positive outcome for Mr. Assange, who was eager to return home after years of confinement and legal battles. The complex logistics of his release were arranged with the help of the Australian government, which funded a private jet to transport him from London to Saipan and back home.
Ultimately, Mr. Assange’s release was secured without any major obstacles, as the judge accepted the plea deal and wished him well on his upcoming birthday. Despite some final protests in court, Mr. Assange was set to walk out a free man, marking the end of a long and tumultuous chapter in his life.