Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, has reached a deal with the US Department of Justice (DoJ), with the agency offering him time served as he pleaded guilty to a single count of espionage. Assange and WikiLeaks have a long relationship with bitcoin and other cryptocurrency.
WikiLeaks posted on X, “Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stansted airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK.”
The US sued him over eighteen offenses after his website facilitated the leak of confidential material from the country’s war in Iran and Afghanistan. The footage showed the military killing civilians.
He faced extradition for the charges from the UK. However, he managed to find refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for seven years as the then-president of Ecuador sympathized with his cause. Five years ago, he was pushed out of the embassy by the new president and subsequently arrested, spending five years in a UK prison.
He has now pleaded guilty to the US DoJ and will serve no extra time as it considered his stint in the UK prison as time served, making him a free man. However, the deal has not been formalized finally.
Nevertheless, it came after long diplomatic efforts from Australia, Assange’s home country, persuading US President Joe Biden to work on dropping the charges due to Assange’s ill health. And that transpired.
Assange first declined the acceptance of funding for WikiLeaks in bitcoin. In fact, Satoshi Nakamoto requested that WikiLeaks not accept the cryptocurrency as government agencies would take the opportunity to drive the coin’s name into the ground. However, WikiLeaks had to accept bitcoin once it faced financial blockades from all mainstream channels.
In 2017, Assange also chose Bitcoin’s most recent block then to recite and confirm he was alive while rumors about his death circulated online. Another history with cryptocurrency involves a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) raising 16,500 Ether to aid Assange’s and WikiLeak’s legal requirements.