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Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

nbcnews.com

431–440 of 1001 posts

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#431

whatever happened to the r--- allegations from Sweden, I understand that Sweden has dropped the charges but.. can we get some closure about that as interested followers of this entire saga? Hope that's not too much to ask..

You can say "rape". It's not a dirty word.

[dead]

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#432

I think the pressure from the Australian government had to do a lot with this good news[0][1]. 0. https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard/Hansar... 1. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/10/politics/biden-assange-au...

Why though? There locking up their own whistleblowers, Daniel McBride.

I think you mean David McBride?

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#433

Am I the only one who feels suspicious about this and would hesitate to trust the persecuters? Maybe that's not a entirely a reasonable reaction (I just woke up about 10 minutes ago) but it's how I feel currently and I'm wondering if anyone else would feel the same. The U.S. as a national entity certainly isn't above lying, as leaks regarding them have shown.

In addition to the UK, it's almost certain that this had high level political influence between Australia's prime minister and the US president. I don't think the perspective that the US would be willing to damage their relations with Australia and the UK over this especially while the US is

Considering the lengths Assange has gone to to avoid entering US custody, I think he's weighed up the ability to trust the US on this one with probably more information than we have.

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#434

All around my neighborhood is the graffiti of "Free Assange, Oz hero". Just this morning I saw a large amount of it in a new place. Was thinking "I really hope one day it happens but I am doubtful". And then I just saw this... wow! I am so glad to be wrong, to see my pessimistic side be completely wrong. Julian is free!

What’s the actual view on him in oz? We’ve got exiled Aussie politicians here in the U.K. saying that he’s universally reviled, and that nobody even sees him as a “real” Australian, and that Australians will never forgive him for violating their privacy (oh, the bleeding irony). No alternate viewpoints, looks like 100% of sampled Australians hate him?

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#435

> Court documents revealing Assange's plea deal were filed Monday evening in U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean. Assange was expected to appear in that court and to be sentenced to 62 months, with credit for time served in British prison, meaning he would be free to return to Australia, where he was born. I wouldn’t get too excited just yet. He is appearing in…

IANAL but the judge can't both reject the plea deal and sentence him, since rejecting the plea deal invalidates the guilty plea. Rejecting it and remanding him to custody would cause a diplomatic incident. He's not out of the woods yet by any means, but if they reached a deal his lawyers are confident in, I wouldn't be worried about the judge. They are supposed to deffer to international law if US is a party to the t…

The US is a country with a history of outright kidnapping people from foreign soil - including that of friendly nations.

There's every chance here that this deal represents a way out for the US as well, and that it will be kept for that reason, but if the US government still wants him to stand trial, a plea deal and the risk of a minor diplomatic scuffle at a point in time where the UK parliamentary election will overshadow the case in UK media isn't going to stop them.

Keep in mind he doesn't have any support from the UK government - they'd rather be rid of him -, and the current UK government is almost certain to be out of government shortly. It's unlikely there'd be more of a diplomatic incident than a slightly stern letter.

I think he has reasonable odds - this case is likely at this point mostly just a nuisance for everyone involved except Assange himself. There's nothing to be gained, other than perhaps for some overzealous prosecutor. But I also would not be one bit surprised if something was to happen.

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#437
post #347

> Court documents revealing Assange's plea deal were filed Monday evening in U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean. Assange was expected to appear in that court and to be sentenced to 62 months, with credit for time served in British prison, meaning he would be free to return to Australia, where he was born. I wouldn’t get too excited just yet. He is appearing in…

I think it would be quite the diplomatic travesty for them to switch to arresting him after choosing to trial him in the closest court of Australia and credit him for time in prison already. https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/1805385141239660627?ref_src...

What would the actual consequence be? Almost certainly nothing. That said, if the Americans wanted to drag this out further, they'd simply drag it out further, so it seems highly unlikely this is some ploy, however it's not impossible. Assange is more easily "forgotten" if they actually managed to imprison him in The States. But we'll see. I'll only completely believe it once he touches down in Australia.

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and politics is not about supporting only one side either. If transparency makes for more informed decisions, who’s to judge the better outcome? Meritocracies die in darkness and evidence of corruption scares lots of voters away. Especially the unaffiliated/independent ones that decide elections.

Weird that he had the hacked emails of two political parties in the US and only released one of them, then

Are there sources for this?

Re: Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the U.S., allowing him to go free

#440
post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He fled and let the statute of limitations expire. His excuse was Sweden might extradite him to the US, but the UK wouldnt.

> Sweden might extradite him to the US, but the UK wouldnt An excuse that was always made zero sense. It later emerged that at the time of the Swedish investigation, there was no indictment from the US.

And you do not think, that would have changed the minute, he was in jail in sweden?
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