‘No Physical Harm To Anyone By Leaks’: Assange’s Freedom A Huge Blow To Detractors

These are the images the world has been waiting for (with the exception of all Neocons, Liberal interventionists, natsec hawks, and Killary types…). “Free at last,” WikiLeaks said in a post on X, upon Julian Assange emerging rom his plane after landing in the Australian capital of Canberra.

Assange raised his fist on the tarmac, and lovingly embraced his wife Stella and his children and family. His guilty plea arrangement with the United States was a success. 

During the Wednesday morning stopover and court appearance in a US district court in Saipan, the 52-year old Assange formally pleaded guilty to obtaining and publishing US military secrets.

REUNITED: Julian Assange embraces his wife @Stella_Assange for the first time as a free man pic.twitter.com/yfgLYa3yWt

— Going Underground (@GUnderground_TV) June 26, 2024

One of Assange’s lawyers, Jennifer Robinson, said after the hearing that the whole ordeal “sets a dangerous precedent that should be a concern to journalists everywhere.”

During the hearing he appeared emotional and there were moments of humor and laughter in interaction with the judge and with the court, according to The Guardian. For example, when the judge questioned whether satisfied with the plea conditions, Assange responded: “It might depend on the outcome.” This immediately drew some laughter in the courtroom.

Chief Judge Ramona Manglona said at the start: “Not many people recognize we are part of the United States, but that is true.” By the end she pronounced: “It appears this case ends with me” and followed with “I hope there will be some peace restored.”

The moment he walked out of the courtroom a free man:

Julian Assange Free At Last!!! pic.twitter.com/Vpzcxr6lbi

— Stella Assange #FreeAssangeNOW (@Stella_Assange) June 26, 2024

Crucially, the judge said something which marks a significant blow to Assange’s and WikiLeaks’ detractors, who have long maintained that the leaks – particularly the Iraq and Afghan war logs – put intelligence officers and foreign assets in danger and may have gotten some killed.

Manglona explained that key to the deal for his freedom was that he already served years in a notorious and harsh UK prison, but also that no actual physical harm was actually caused due to Assange’s actions.

“You stand before me to be sentenced in this criminal action,” the judge said. “I would note the following: Timing matters. If this case was brought before me some time near 2012, without the benefit of what I know now, that you served a period of imprisonment… in apparently one of the harshest facilities in the United Kingdom.”

With his attorney after being pronounced by the US federal judge a free man…

Just a moment – pic.twitter.com/5UDPsGcIYG

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 26, 2024

Below: Returning home to Australia, where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s role in securing his freedom was key. WikiLeaks and Assange’s family have thanked the Australian PM.

The Australian parliament had also begun publicly lobbying for Assange’s freedom starting months ago, and this was also essential in building pressure with the Biden administration.

“There’s another significant fact – the government has indicated there is no personal victim here. That tells me the dissemination of this information did not result in any known physical injury,” the judge continued.

“These two facts are very relevant. I would say if this was still unknown and closer to [2012] I would not be so inclined to accept this plea agreement before me,” Manglona added. “But it’s the year 2024.”

Someone please ask this walking embodiment of mediocrity:

1) How *specifically* did WL endanger US national security?

2) If Assange should be imprisoned for life for publishing these docs, why shouldn’t the NYT and Guardian which partnered with him?https://t.co/eKbDD5zued

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 25, 2024

Former intelligence officials and national security pundits have been livid and disappointed over the plea deal, claiming Assange’s leaks got people killed and harmed US operations abroad.

This cretin worked for CIA so obviously her tweet about Assange is full of lies.

But what sickens me worse is her cowardice.

The NYT, Guardian, etc. partnered with WL to publish the same classified docs.

But she’ll never call for them to be imprisoned because they have power: https://t.co/xXH7PaSQ3y

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 25, 2024

“I can’t stop crying,” his wife, Stella, wrote on X soon after.

Importantly, as a condition of the plea WikiLeaks is required to destroy information pertaining to US state secrets that was provided to Assange and his team. While the WikiLeaks site is a large repository of world-wide leaks on various governments, it appears that sections devoted to classified US documents have now been removed.

NEW: All 19,252 DNC emails & 8,034 documents have been scrubbed from the Wikileaks website.

User attempts to access files results in “Internal Server Error.”

Hillary Clinton emails are still available online.

The DNC emails removal follows upon the historic Assange plea deal. pic.twitter.com/VR6OJJsWVk

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) June 26, 2024

Upon Assange’s celebratory landing in Australia, his wife Stella said in a press conference that he “just arrived in Australia after being in a high-security prison for over five years and [on] a 72-hour flight.”

She said it would be “premature” for Julian to address the press and that he “has to recover”. She then declared: “The fact is that Julian will always defend human rights, will always defend victims – that’s just part of who he is.”

“I hope journalists and editors and publishers everywhere realize the danger of the US case against Julian that criminalizes, that has secured a conviction for, newsgathering and publishing information that was true, that the public deserved to know,” she continued in the press conference.

“That precedent now can and will be used in the future against the rest of the press. So it is in the interest of all of the press to seek for this current state of affairs to change through reform of the Espionage Act,” said Stella Assange. “Through increased press protections, and yes, eventually when the time comes – not today – a pardon.”