The US government is reportedly considering offering a plea deal to Julian Assange, allowing him to admit to a crime, but his lawyers say they have received “no indication” that Washington intends to change its approach.
THE The Wall Street Journal reported The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday was looking for ways to cut short the WikiLeaks founder’s long-running court battle in London against his extradition to the United States on espionage charges for publishing thousands of classified U.S. documents 14 years ago linked to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. .
The report said one plan under consideration would be to drop all 18 current charges under the Espionage Act if Assange pleaded guilty to mishandling classified documents, a misdemeanor. Assange could plead remotely from London and would likely be free shortly after the deal is struck, as he has already spent five years in U.K. custody.
However, Assange’s legal team said it was not aware of any change in prosecutorial strategy.
One of Assange’s defense lawyers, Barry Pollack, said in a statement: “It is inappropriate for Mr Assange’s lawyers to make comments while his case is before the UK High Court, otherwise to say that we have received no indication that the Department of Justice intends to do so. resolve the case and the United States continues, with as much determination as ever, to seek his extradition on all 18 counts, exposing him to 175 years in prison.
The High Court is expected to decide in the coming weeks whether to grant Assange a new right to appeal his extradition. Assange, who is being held in Belmarsh high security prison, is believed to be too ill to travel to the Royal Courts of Justice to attend the final hearing held there last month.
If both judges rule against him, he will have exhausted all UK options to challenge extradition, and the only avenue left to him would be the European Court of Human Rights, which could order the UK not to proceed with the extradition until the court has heard the case. If that fails, Assange could be taken to the United States within days.
Extraditing Assange would be politically difficult for the Biden administration, particularly in an election year. The previous Democratic administration, under Barack Obama, ultimately decided not to charge Assange, fearing it would infringe on First Amendment rights guaranteeing freedom of the press.
In 2019, the Trump administration pursued prosecutions under the Espionage Act of 1917, seeking to differentiate conventional journalism from the actions of Assange, who provided a platform for the publication of leaked secret documents and which prosecutors say would put lives in danger.
At a hearing on Assange’s leave to appeal in February, his defense lawyers argued that he could be targeted by US state agencies for “extra-legal elimination of attacks”. ” if he were extradited, especially given “the real possibility of a return of a Trump administration.” .