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WikiLeaks founder\u00a0Julian Assange<\/a>\u00a0will plead guilty to a felony charge in a deal with the U.S. Justice Department that will allow him to walk free and resolve a long-running legal saga<\/a> that spanned multiple continents and centered on the publication of a\u00a0trove of classified documents<\/a>.<\/p>\n Assange left a British prison on Monday and will appear later this week in the U.S. federal court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Western Pacific. He\u2019s expected to plead guilty to an Espionage Act charge of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defense information, the Justice Department said in a letter filed in court.<\/p>\n The guilty plea, which must be approved by a judge, brings an abrupt conclusion to a criminal case of international intrigue and to the U.S. government\u2019s years-long pursuit of a publisher whose hugely popular secret-sharing website made him a cause c\u00e9l\u00e8bre among many press freedom advocates who said he acted as a journalist to expose U.S. military wrongdoing. Investigators, by contrast, have repeatedly asserted that his actions broke laws meant to protect sensitive information and put the country\u2019s national security at risk.<\/p>\n He is expected to return to his home country of Australia after his plea and sentencing, which is scheduled for Wednesday morning, local time in Saipan, the largest island in the Northern Mariana Islands. The hearing is taking place there because of Assange\u2019s opposition to traveling to the continental U.S. and the court\u2019s proximity to Australia, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n Attorneys for Assange didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.<\/p>\n In a statement posted on X<\/a>, WikiLeaks said Assange boarded a plane and departed the United Kingdom on Monday after leaving the British prison, where he has spent the last five years. WikiLeaks applauded the announcement of the deal, saying it was grateful for \u201call who stood by us, fought for us, and remained utterly committed in the fight for his freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWikiLeaks published groundbreaking stories of government corruption and human rights abuses, holding the powerful accountable for their actions. As editor-in-chief, Julian paid severely for these principles, and for the people\u2019s right to know,\u201d WikiLeaks said.<\/p>\n The deal ensures that Assange will admit guilt while also sparing him from any additional prison time. He had\u00a0spent years hiding out<\/a>\u00a0in the Ecuadorian embassy in London\u00a0after Swedish authorities sought his arrest on rape allegations before being locked up in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n Assange is expected to be sentenced to the five years he has already spent in the high-security British prison while fighting to avoid extradition to the U.S. to face charges, a process that has played out in a series of hearings in London. Last month, he won the right to\u00a0appeal an extradition order<\/a>\u00a0after his lawyers argued that the U.S. government provided \u201cblatantly inadequate\u201d assurances that he would have the same free speech protections as an American citizen if extradited from Britain.<\/p>\n Assange has been heralded by many around the world as a hero who brought to light military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the files published by WikiLeaks was a video of a 2007 Apache<\/a> helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.<\/p>\n But his reputation was also tarnished by rape allegations, which he has denied.<\/p>\n The Justice Department\u2019s indictment unsealed in 2019 accused Assange of encouraging and helping\u00a0U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning<\/a>\u00a0steal diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks published in 2010. Prosecutors had accused Assange of damaging national security by publishing documents that harmed the U.S. and its allies and aided its adversaries.<\/p>\n Prosecutors said in a charging document filed in connection with the plea agreement that Assange conspired with Manning to receive and obtain documents, notes and other writings related to the national defense and to \u201cwillfully communicate\u201d those records. The document takes care to note that Assange was \u201cnot a United States citizen, did not possess a U.S. security clearance, and did not have authorization to possess, access, or control documents, writings, or notes relating to the national defense of the United States, including classified information.\u201d<\/p>\n The case was lambasted by press advocates and Assange supporters. Federal prosecutors defended it as targeting conduct that went way beyond that of a journalist gathering information, amounting to an attempt to solicit, steal and indiscriminately publish classified government documents. It was brought even though the Obama administration Justice Department had passed on prosecuting him years earlier.<\/p>\n The plea agreement comes months after\u00a0President Joe Biden<\/a>\u00a0said he was considering a request from Australia to drop the U.S. push to prosecute Assange. The White House was not involved in the decision to resolve Assange\u2019s case, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the case and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison after being convicted of violating the Espionage Act and other offenses for leaking classified government and military documents to WikiLeaks. President Barack Obama\u00a0commuted her sentence<\/a>\u00a0in 2017, allowing her release after about seven years behind bars.<\/p>\n Assange made headlines in 2016 after his website published Democratic emails that prosecutors say were stolen by Russian intelligence operatives. He was never charged in special counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s Russia investigation, but the inquiry laid bare in stark detail the role that the hacking operation played in interfering in that year\u2019s election on behalf of then-Republican candidate Donald Trump.<\/p>\n Justice Department officials mulled charges for Assange following the documents\u2019 2010 publication, but were unsure a case would hold up in court and were concerned it could be hard to justify prosecuting him for acts similar to those of a conventional journalist.<\/p>\n The posture changed in the Trump administration, however, with former Attorney General Jeff Sessions in 2017 calling Assange\u2019s arrest a priority.<\/p>\n Assange\u2019s family and supporters have said his physical and mental health have suffered during\u00a0more than a decade of legal battles,<\/a>\u00a0which includes seven years spent inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.<\/p>\n\n