Is Assange Coming to America? Unlikely

Is Julian Assange coming to the US? Probably not.

"I don't pay a lot of attending to Mr. Assange'south tweets, and so that wasn't a consideration" in deciding to commute the sentence of Chelsea Manning, President Obama said today during his final press briefing in office.

Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2022 to avert extradition to Sweden on sexual misconduct charges. In January, WikiLeaks—the site he founded—tweeted that "If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ example."

On Tuesday, President Obama did just that, commuting Manning's sentence to fourth dimension served. She will be released in May subsequently serving seven years in a armed forces prison. She was sentenced to 35 years in 2022 for stealing documents from a classified Defense Section network and submitting them to WikiLeaks, which published the information.

Today, Obama defended the conclusion, arguing that Manning served her fourth dimension.

"The notion that the boilerplate person who was thinking nearly disclosing vital classified information would remember that it goes unpunished... I don't recall would go that impression from the sentence that Chelsea Manning has served," the president said. "Information technology has been my view that given she went to trial, that due procedure was carried out, that she took responsibleness for her offense, that the sentence that she received was very disproportionate relative to what other leakers had received and that she had served a significant amount of time, that information technology made sense to commute and non pardon her sentence.

"I experience very comfortable that justice has been served," Obama added.

As for Assange, it does not look like the president will apply his remaining time in role to get on the line with the exiled WikiLeaks founder. "I refer you to the Department of Justice" on that issue, he said today.

The DOJ has been investigating WikiLeaks over Iraq War data dumps.

For his office, Assange no longer appears ready to jump on a aeroplane to the US:

Assange is still happy to come to the Us provided all his rights are guarenteed despite White House at present saying Manning was not quid-quo-pro.
— WikiLeaks (@WikiLeaks) January 18, 2022

Assange's lawyer tells The Telegraph that Assange wanted the president to grant Manning charity and release her immediately rather than commuting the sentence and releasing her in May.

Every bit The Telegraph notes, the United states of america has not requested extradition, merely Assange believes information technology could happen if he makes his way to Sweden.

About Chloe Albanesius

Chloe Albanesius

Chloe has led PCMag's news coverage for more than x years, editing and writing stories virtually the innovations that have shaped the concluding decade and the companies backside them. She as well oversees the site'south how-to coverage. Before joining PCMag.com, Chloe was a reporter covering tech policy on Capitol Loma for The National Journal's Engineering Daily and financial IT for Incisive Media in NYC. She's held internships at NBC'south See the Press, washingtonpost.com, the Tate Gallery press function in London, Whorl Telephone call, and Congressional Quarterly. She graduated with a available'southward degree in journalism from American Academy in Washington, D.C.