President Joe Biden has indicated that he is contemplating a request from Australia to halt the long-standing U.S. pursuit of prosecuting Wikileaks founder Julian Assange for releasing a cache of classified American documents. Assange, an Australian citizen, has been resisting U.S. extradition attempts from a U.K. prison.
Australia has persistently urged the U.S. to abandon its prosecution of Assange, who faces 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse for publishing classified U.S. documents nearly 15 years ago. American prosecutors allege that Assange assisted U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in obtaining diplomatic cables and military files that were later published by WikiLeaks, endangering lives.
