The Saipan Surprise: How Delicate Talks Led to the Unlikely End of Julian Assange’s 12-Year Saga

WASHINGTON (AP) — About 18 months ago, Julian Assange’s lawyer made a bold request to federal prosecutors in Virginia: drop the case against the WikiLeaks founder. This was a daring move, considering Assange had released hundreds of thousands of secret documents and was one of the most high-profile detainees facing extradition to the U.S. The Justice Department had been fighting in British courts to bring him to the U.S. for trial.

From that request, a series of events unfolded, leading to an unexpected outcome on Wednesday: Assange walked out of a U.S. courthouse on a remote Pacific island, starting his journey home after 12 years in self-exile and prison.

“How does it feel to be a free man, Mr. Assange?” someone shouted. He smiled, nodded, and kept walking, ready to catch another flight to Australia.

The plea deal came after a slow extradition process that offered no certainty Assange would ever be tried in the U.S. U.S. officials also considered the more than five years he had already spent in a British prison. In the end, a series of proposals and counterproposals were made to resolve key issues: the Justice Department wanted a felony guilty plea, while Assange refused to set foot in the continental U.S., fearing potential dire consequences.

The agreement included safeguards to ensure Assange’s freedom in Australia if a judge rejected it at the last minute.

This report is based on interviews with people familiar with the negotiations and a review of court records.

Assange’s release in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, ended a divisive legal saga that spanned three U.S. presidential administrations and multiple continents.

Five years ago, this outcome would have seemed impossible. Back then, the Justice Department unsealed charges as British authorities dragged a bearded and shouting Assange from the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he had been hiding for seven years. Assange had sought refuge there in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden for a sexual assault investigation that was later dropped.

He stayed there, fearing arrest and extradition to the U.S. for publishing hundreds of thousands of war logs and diplomatic cables that prosecutors say he conspired with Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to obtain illegally.

At the time of his indictment, Assange was also known for WikiLeaks’ role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, releasing damaging emails about Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton that were stolen by Russian military intelligence officers. This led then-candidate Trump to famously declare, “WikiLeaks, I love WikiLeaks.”

Inside the Justice Department, however, the view was different. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in 2017 prioritized Assange’s arrest amid a crackdown on leaks of classified information.

The charges were not related to the election interference but to the earlier diplomatic cables. The Obama administration had debated charging Assange but did not pursue an indictment under the Espionage Act, partly due to concerns it could be seen as an attack on journalism.

The Trump administration took a different approach. A filing error in 2018 inadvertently revealed the existence of a criminal case. The first charge, unsealed months later, was a computer intrusion count accusing Assange of conspiring with Manning to crack a password for higher-level access to classified networks.

Soon after, 17 more counts were disclosed, accusing Assange of violating the Espionage Act by obtaining and disseminating secret records.

Prosecutors argued that Assange crossed the line by soliciting the hacking of computer networks for classified information and by publishing secrets, including the unredacted names of sources who provided information to U.S. military forces. Assange’s supporters have long argued that he provided a valuable public service by exposing military misconduct, similar to the role of journalists.

The case was legally and logistically challenging. With Assange jailed in London’s Belmarsh prison, the Justice Department struggled to secure his extradition, a complex process involving judges who, along with Assange, sought assurances that he could defend himself using First Amendment protections.

With Assange’s transfer prospects uncertain, his team saw an opportunity with the more media-friendly Attorney General Merrick Garland to seek a resolution.

About 18 months ago, Assange’s lawyer made a presentation to Justice Department prosecutors in Virginia, asking for the indictment’s dismissal. Though the idea was initially unworkable, prosecutors later returned with a counteroffer: would Assange consider a guilty plea?

Assange’s team was open to exploring this but had two conditions: no additional prison time and no travel to the U.S., due to fears about what might happen to him there.

Assange’s lawyers suggested a misdemeanor plea, which could be entered remotely without him traveling to the U.S. When that idea failed, the two sides discussed the possibility of WikiLeaks pleading guilty to a felony and Assange to a misdemeanor, aiming to reach an agreement.

Negotiations were mainly with prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia but later involved Justice Department national security officials. Ultimately, officials respected Assange’s core demands, proposing a deal where he could enter the plea outside the 50 states, avoid additional prison time, and be released from custody in Britain.

This led to several weeks of serious negotiations. Saipan was chosen as the location for the plea deal.

“The Justice Department reaches a resolution in plea matters when it believes it serves the best interests of the United States. That’s what we’ve done here,” Garland said at a news conference Thursday.

From the Justice Department’s perspective, the more than five years Assange spent in a high-security British prison was comparable to, or even greater than, a sentence he might have received in the U.S.

The extradition process was slow and strained. In March, a British court ruled that Assange could not be extradited unless U.S. authorities guaranteed he wouldn’t face the death penalty and could use the same free-speech defense as a U.S. citizen.

The U.S. provided these assurances, but Assange’s lawyers only accepted that he wouldn’t face capital punishment, arguing that the assurance about First Amendment protections was insufficient. Last month, a court allowed Assange to appeal his extradition order, stating that the U.S. had given “blatantly inadequate” assurances.

The plea deal included contingencies if the judge did not approve it, allowing Assange to withdraw from the deal and return to Australia. If the judge insisted on detaining him, the Justice Department agreed to dismiss the Saipan charge.

Australian officials were pushing for his release, with the government asking the Justice Department in an April letter to consider a plea deal. President Joe Biden said in April that his administration was “considering” dropping the case. A White House official stated this week that the White House had no involvement in the plea agreement.

The deal with the U.S. was reached on June 19, according to London’s High Court. That same day, Assange’s wife, Stella, recorded a video outside Belmarsh prison, expressing confidence that her husband’s ordeal was ending.

“This period of our lives, I’m confident now, has come to an end,” she said. The video was released almost a week later when Assange was on his way to Saipan, after news of the plea deal had spread.

“If you’re seeing this, it means he is out,” WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson said in the same video.

On Wednesday morning, Saipan, a rural Pacific island known for a World War II battle and as a scuba diving destination, became the site of a historic conclusion to a sensational case.

After a long flight from London to Bangkok to Saipan, Assange arrived at the island’s grand federal courthouse. Opened four years ago, it features towering pillars and impressive seaside views.

Assange, with white hair, walked into the courthouse wearing a dark suit and a gold-colored tie. Inside, he appeared relaxed, wearing glasses, reviewing documents, and occasionally joking. When the judge asked if he was satisfied with the plea conditions, he replied, “It might depend on the outcome,” causing laughter in the courtroom.

After the plea, the judge declared him a “free man," and Assange headed home to Australia, where he was reunited with his wife and father, John Shipton, who expressed his joy to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

He said his son would now be able “to walk up and down the beach and feel the sand through his toes in winter, that lovely chill, and be able to learn how to be patient and play with your children for a couple of hours. All of the great beauty of ordinary life.”

As for Assange, his future in Australia looks certain. He avoided the media at a news conference Thursday, where his wife suggested he was looking forward to simple pleasures.

“Julian plans to swim in the ocean every day,” she said. “He plans to sleep in a real bed. He plans to taste real food, and he plans to enjoy his freedom.”