With never-before-seen poltiical upheavals already swirling around the upcoming US elections, a new bombshell development has added to the already raging firestorm of controversy.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a man widely credited and vilified for helping Donald Trump win the presidency in 2016, has spent the better part of a decade as a political prisoner. But now, reports say his long confinement has come to an unexpected end after being released on bail from a British prison.
In the end, it was a mixture of diplomacy, politics and law that allowed Julian Assange to take off in a private jet from London’s Stansted airport on Monday, bound ultimately for Australia and freedom.
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The deal that led to his liberty – after seven years of self-imposed confinement and then five years of enforced detention – was months in the making but uncertain to the last.
In a statement, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the possibility of a plea deal “first came to our attention in March”. Since then, it had been advising the United States “on the mechanics” of how to get Mr Assange released and to appear before a US federal judge “in accordance with his wishes and those of the US government”.
But the origins of the deal – after so many years of deadlock – probably began with the election of a new Australian government in May 2022 that brought to power an administration determined to bring home one of its citizens detained overseas.
Anthony Albanese, the new Labor prime minister, said he did not support everything Mr Assange had done but “enough was enough” and it was time for him to be released. He made the case a priority, largely behind closed doors. “Not all foreign affairs is best done with the loud hailer,” he said at the time.
Mr Albanese had cross-party support in Australia’s parliament too.
The international movement to secure the imprisoned journalist’s freedom likewise drew support from across the political spectrum.
A delegation of MPs travelled to Washington in September to lobby US Congress directly. The prime minister then raised the issue himself with President Joe Biden at the White House during a state visit in October.
This was followed by a parliamentary vote in February when MPs overwhelmingly supported a call to urge the US and the UK to allow Mr Assange back to Australia.
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Then came the law. On May 20, the High Court in the UK gave Julian Assange a legal lifeline.
It ruled that he could bring a new appeal against attempts to have him extradited to stand trial in the US for obtaining and publishing military secrets.
At [that] point, he faced multiple charges under the US espionage act: 17 of publishing official secrets, each of which carried a maximum 10-year prison term, and one of hacking, which was punishable by up to five years.
Nick Vamos, former head of extradition at the CPS and head of business crime at the law firm Peters & Peters, said that the May ruling put pressure on both sides to come to the table and complete the deal.
He said the ruling potentially allowed Mr Assange to argue that publishing secret US information was protected by the First Amendment, something that could have led to “months if not further years of delays and pressure”.
“Faced with this uncertainty and further delay, it looks as if the US have dropped the publishing charges in exchange for Mr Assange pleading guilty to hacking and ‘time served’, finally bringing this saga to end,” he said.
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Whitehall sources said the date of the next High Court hearing was fast approaching on July 9 and 10 and both sides knew that if they were to agree a deal, it had to happen now.
Speculation grew that the Biden administration wanted the issue resolved before the presidential election in November, and some Assange supporters even suggested the US feared a Labour government in the UK would be less willing to agree to his extradition.
The White House was quick to say on Tuesday that it had played no part in the details of the plea deal – that was a matter for the Department of Justice.
The BBC story made no mention of President Donald Trump’s sentencing coming up the day after the next High Court hearing was scheduled to end.
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