(26 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands – 26 June 2024
1. Wide of Jennifer Robinson and Barry Pollack, lawyers for Julian Assange walking out
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Barry Pollack, lawyer for Julian Assange:
++FOLLOWS PREVIOUS SHOT++
"Barry Pollack, criminal defense lawyer for Julian Assange. The prosecution of Julian Assange is unprecedented. In the 100 years of the Espionage Act it has never been used by United States to pursue a publisher, a journalist like Mr. Assange. Mr. Assange revealed truthful, important and newsworthy information, including revealing that the United States had committed war crimes. And he has suffered tremendously in his fight for free speech, for freedom of the press, and to ensure that the American public and the world community gets truthful and important newsworthy information."
++BLACK FRAMES++
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Barry Pollack, lawyer for Julian Assange:
"WikiLeaks’s work will continue. And Mr. Assange, I have no doubt, will be a continuing force for the freedom of speech and transparency in government. He is a powerful voice and a voice that cannot and should not be silenced."
++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange pleaded guilty to obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets Wednesday in a deal with Justice Department prosecutors that secures his liberty.
The guilty plea brings a stunning conclusion to an international saga of the quixotic hacker who exposed government secrets.
His lawyer Barry Pollack said in Saipan: "The prosecution of Julian Assange is unprecedented. In the 100 years of the Espionage Act it has never been used by United States to pursue a publisher, a journalist like Mr. Assange."
The deal reached with the U.S. Justice Department came after Assange spent 12 years either in self-exile or in a British prison.
He pleaded guilty to conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information relating to the national defense of the United States.
The deal required him to admit guilt but also permitted him to return to Australia without any time in an American prison.
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