These are the images the world has been waiting for (with the exception of all Neocons, Liberal interventionists, natsec hawks, and Killary types…). “Free at last,” WikiLeaks said in a post on X, upon Julian Assange emerging rom his plane after landing in the Australian capital of Canberra.

Via WikiLeaks

Assange raised his fist on the tarmac, and lovingly embraced his wife Stella and his children and family. His guilty plea arrangement with the United States was a success. 

During the Wednesday morning stopover and court appearance in a US district court in Saipan, the 52-year old Assange formally pleaded guilty to obtaining and publishing US military secrets.

REUNITED: Julian Assange embraces his wife @Stella_Assange for the first time as a free man pic.twitter.com/yfgLYa3yWt

— Going Underground (@GUnderground_TV) June 26, 2024

One of Assange’s lawyers, Jennifer Robinson, said after the hearing that the whole ordeal “sets a dangerous precedent that should be a concern to journalists everywhere.”

During the hearing he appeared emotional and there were moments of humor and laughter in interaction with the judge and with the court, according to The Guardian. For example, when the judge questioned whether satisfied with the plea conditions, Assange responded: “It might depend on the outcome.” This immediately drew some laughter in the courtroom.

Chief Judge Ramona Manglona said at the start: “Not many people recognize we are part of the United States, but that is true.” By the end she pronounced: “It appears this case ends with me” and followed with “I hope there will be some peace restored.”

The moment he walked out of the courtroom a free man:

Julian Assange Free At Last!!! pic.twitter.com/Vpzcxr6lbi

— Stella Assange #FreeAssangeNOW (@Stella_Assange) June 26, 2024

Crucially, the judge said something which marks a significant blow to Assange’s and WikiLeaks’ detractors, who have long maintained that the leaks – particularly the Iraq and Afghan war logs – put intelligence officers and foreign assets in danger and may have gotten some killed.

Manglona explained that key to the deal for his freedom was that he already served years in a notorious and harsh UK prison, but also that no actual physical harm was actually caused due to Assange’s actions.

“You stand before me to be sentenced in this criminal action,” the judge said. “I would note the following: Timing matters. If this case was brought before me some time near 2012, without the benefit of what I know now, that you served a period of imprisonment… in apparently one of the harshest facilities in the United Kingdom.”

With his attorney after being pronounced by the US federal judge a free man…

Just a moment – pic.twitter.com/5UDPsGcIYG

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 26, 2024

Below: Returning home to Australia, where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s role in securing his freedom was key. WikiLeaks and Assange’s family have thanked the Australian PM.

The Australian parliament had also begun publicly lobbying for Assange’s freedom starting months ago, and this was also essential in building pressure with the Biden administration.

With attorney Jen Robinson on the plane ride home.

“There’s another significant fact – the government has indicated there is no personal victim here. That tells me the dissemination of this information did not result in any known physical injury,” the judge continued.

“These two facts are very relevant. I would say if this was still unknown and closer to [2012] I would not be so inclined to accept this plea agreement before me,” Manglona added. “But it’s the year 2024.”

Someone please ask this walking embodiment of mediocrity:

1) How *specifically* did WL endanger US national security?

2) If Assange should be imprisoned for life for publishing these docs, why shouldn’t the NYT and Guardian which partnered with him?https://t.co/eKbDD5zued

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 25, 2024

Former intelligence officials and national security pundits have been livid and disappointed over the plea deal, claiming Assange’s leaks got people killed and harmed US operations abroad.

This cretin worked for CIA so obviously her tweet about Assange is full of lies.

But what sickens me worse is her cowardice.

The NYT, Guardian, etc. partnered with WL to publish the same classified docs.

But she’ll never call for them to be imprisoned because they have power: https://t.co/xXH7PaSQ3y

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 25, 2024

“I can’t stop crying,” his wife, Stella, wrote on X soon after.

Importantly, as a condition of the plea WikiLeaks is required to destroy information pertaining to US state secrets that was provided to Assange and his team. While the WikiLeaks site is a large repository of world-wide leaks on various governments, it appears that sections devoted to classified US documents have now been removed.

NEW: All 19,252 DNC emails & 8,034 documents have been scrubbed from the Wikileaks website.

User attempts to access files results in “Internal Server Error.”

Hillary Clinton emails are still available online.

The DNC emails removal follows upon the historic Assange plea deal. pic.twitter.com/VR6OJJsWVk

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) June 26, 2024

Upon Assange’s celebratory landing in Australia, his wife Stella said in a press conference that he “just arrived in Australia after being in a high-security prison for over five years and [on] a 72-hour flight.”

She said it would be “premature” for Julian to address the press and that he “has to recover”. She then declared: “The fact is that Julian will always defend human rights, will always defend victims – that’s just part of who he is.”

“I hope journalists and editors and publishers everywhere realize the danger of the US case against Julian that criminalizes, that has secured a conviction for, newsgathering and publishing information that was true, that the public deserved to know,” she continued in the press conference.

Image source: The Guardian

“That precedent now can and will be used in the future against the rest of the press. So it is in the interest of all of the press to seek for this current state of affairs to change through reform of the Espionage Act,” said Stella Assange. “Through increased press protections, and yes, eventually when the time comes – not today – a pardon.”

In a shocking turn of events, Julian Assange will plead guilty to leaking US national security secrets and return to his native Australia, under a deal with Biden’s DoJ that ends a nearly 15-year battle nightmare for the WikiLeaks founder.

After spending more than a decade holed up and imprisoned in London – mainly to avoid being sent to the US – Assange, 52, is expected to be sentenced to time served (62 months in a Belmarsh prison – a high security facility in South-East London) during a court appearance Wednesday in Saipan, in the US Northern Mariana Islands, avoiding a potentially lengthy sentence in an American prison.

Prosecutors had been in talks with Assange to resolve the 2019 case, The Wall Street Journal reported in March, with one sticking point being Assange’s desire to never set foot in the United States.

To enter a felony plea, defendants generally have to show up in person in court. 

Assange’s team had floated the possibility of pleading guilty to a misdemeanor, the Journal reported, which would mean Assange could enter the plea remotely.

The Justice Department and Assange’s legal team reached a compromise under which Assange wouldn’t have to travel to suburban Virginia, where the original case is filed, and prosecutors could still get a felony plea, the people said.  

As The FT reports, the agreement aims to resolve what has been a remarkable stand-off between the DoJ and Assange, who has become one of the world’s most controversial advocates for government transparency and whose legal troubles have spanned multiple countries. 

The plea deal also offers a neat solution to what was becoming an increasing political headache for the U.S. government. 

Earlier this year, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he hoped the U.S. could find a way to conclude the case against Assange, and lawmakers there passed a motion calling for Assange to be allowed to return to his native home. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has also weighed in, saying that the British courts should not extradite Assange to the U.S. In February, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, Alice Jill Edwards, said Assange shouldn’t be extradited to the U.S. to face trial, saying he suffered from “depressive disorder” and was at risk of being placed in solitary confinement.

Finally, while this is excellent news for Assange and his family – and journalistic freedom everywhere – we can’t help but wonder if this outstanding result would have occurred were it not for Biden heading into the first debate with Trump with his poll numbers in the toilet…

Who cares! They are; and Julian is free…

Authored by Audrey Enjoli via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

U.S. actor Dennis Quaid poses during a photocall for the film ‘The Substance’ at the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 20, 2024. (Christophe Simon/AFP via Getty Images)

Actor Dennis Quaid, who stars in the forthcoming biopic “Reagan,” out Aug. 30, has expressed his admiration of former President Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

“I think I’m gonna vote for him,” the 70-year-old said during a recent appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored on May 28, adding that a vote for the presumptive GOP nominee “just makes sense.”

Mr. Quaid explained that he wasn’t initially planning on voting for President Trump. However, he said the politician’s “hush money” trial in Manhattan, which commenced on April 15 and is currently being deliberated on by jurors, ultimately swayed his decision in favor of the business magnate.

President Trump was indicted in April of last year on 34 counts of allegedly falsifying New York business records. The case, which marks the first-ever criminal trial of a former president in United States history, is just one of a handful of legal battles that President Trump is embroiled in. In total, the 77-year-old faces 88 charges across four criminal cases, all of which he has pleaded not guilty to.

“I see a weaponization of our justice system and, uh, a challenge to our constitution,” Mr. Quaid shared. “Trump is the most investigated person, probably in the history of the world, and they haven’t been able to really get him on anything.”

“What is the crime?” he inquired. “I still can’t figure it out.”

When asked by the British broadcaster if he likes President Trump on a personal level, “The Right Stuff” star admitted that there were moments during the politician’s previous presidential campaigns that he wasn’t especially fond of.

“In the last campaign, and in 16 and, you know, and in 20, uh, I found myself going, ‘Oh please don’t do that; please don’t say that.’ You know, it’s like these things have come out of his mouth,” he explained.

However, Mr. Quaid said he liked “everything” the businessman did throughout his presidency.

“What he did with [North] Korea with [Kim Jong Un]; the way he defeated ISIS in three weeks. You know, people don’t even remember it happened so, so fast,” he shared. “He stood up for us overseas and … the way he responded to China. He stands up to people, and that’s what makes him a leader.”

Mr. Quaid continued: “I tell you one true thing about him is that I really feel that he is working for the American people. That’s what he’s all about. And I do believe that to be true and sincere.”

‘We All Live in the Same Country’

Elsewhere in the 45-minute-long conversation, Mr. Quaid gave his thoughts on President Biden, telling Mr. Morgan that he didn’t feel like the president was in control of his administration.

“I don’t feel he’s at the helm; I don’t feel he’s there,” the actor candidly shared. “I feel that he says things to get votes not that he truly believes in them. And now I’m really going to get some blowback, but that’s the way I feel.”

Although Mr. Quaid conveyed his praise for President Trump’s achievements, “The Day After Tomorrow” star said he wished Americans weren’t so divided by politics.

“I hope … we can all learn to have a conversation about, you know, where we are as Americans,” he said. “We all live in the same country, and it doesn’t have to be the end of the world whoever is elected.”

U.S. actor Dennis Quaid poses during a photocall for the film ‘The Substance’ at the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 20, 2024. (Loic Venance/AFP via Getty Images)

Mr. Morgan agreed, sharing an anecdote about some of the disagreements he and his friends would have while drinking at a local pub when he was younger.

“We would all have huge arguments after a few pints but the idea we‘d fall out with each other over it never crossed our minds. We would just argue about what was in the news, you know, and then we’d have a few more pints and we go home and we’d shake each other or give each other a hug,” the 59-year-old television personality explained.

“That ability to respect someone’s opinion—even when you don’t agree with them—just seems to have disappeared from this generation. It’s like you either agree with me or I have to, not just ostracize you, I have to destroy you, you must be canceled.”

Earlier in the conversation, Mr. Quaid offered his thoughts on the political polarization across the country, sharing his belief that people aren’t as informed about pressing issues as they were 30 to 40 years ago.

“Our own point of view, our own beliefs, are getting coughed back at us,” he said, referencing the types of information commonly shared by mainstream media and via social media platforms.

“We really need to … learn to work together and disagree but have a civil conversation about it [because] 30, 40 years ago, we had liberal Republicans, we had conservative Democrats, and there was much more across the aisle,” Mr. Quaid said.