Julian Assange became a free man on Wednesday Australia time (late Tuesday U.S. mainland time) after pleading guilty to espionage charges brought by the U.S. government in exchange for his freedom. And while it’s unclear whether the WikiLeaks co-founder will restart his work publishing secrets anytime soon, Assange doesn’t need to worry about the cost of the private jet that flew him out of the UK. An anonymous Bitcoin whale donated roughly $US500,000 to cover that for him.
The WikiLeaks co-founder’s wife, Stella Assange, posted an “emergency appeal” on social media not long after news broke of the plea agreement that would treat Assange’s five years in a London prison as time served. Assange previously faced up to 170 years in American prison.
“URGENT: Emergency appeal for donations to cover massive USD 520,000 debt for jet,” Stella tweeted Tuesday. “Julian’s travel to freedom comes at a massive cost: Julian will owe USD 520,000 which he is obligated to pay back to the Australian government for charter Flight VJ199. He was not permitted to fly commercial airlines or routes to Saipan and onward to Australia. Any contribution big or small is much appreciated.”
Stella posted a link to a British crowdfunding site to accept donations in fiat currency as well as a link with crypto wallets for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Doge, and others. The Bitcoin wallet has just 24 donations at the time of this writing, but one of those was massive, dropping 8.07 Bitcoin, or about $US498,000 at current prices. Other donations mostly total less than $US100 with a few amounting to several hundred.
And that roughly $US500,000 will nearly be enough to cover Julian’s private flight, something his wife claims was organized, but not paid for, by the Australian government. The Australians had been lobbying President Joe Biden for Assange’s return to the country of his birth, though it’s still not clear how much Biden may have personally intervened to make sure the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) struck a plea deal. Charges against Assange were originally brought by Donald Trump’s DOJ, which is somewhat ironic given the fact that Assange’s leaks in the lead up to the 2016 election helped Trump win the White House.
Fiat currency donations to Assange currently sit at £387,359 from over 8,000 donors, the equivalent to roughly $US490,000. The remaining funds after the flight is paid for will go to Assange’s “recovery and well-being,” according to the crowdfunding campaign.
The 52-year-old Assange was held in London’s Belmarsh Prison for the past five years after being physically dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy in 2019. Assange entered the embassy in 2012 claiming asylum, jumping bail on sexual assault charges in Europe that have since been dropped. Assange has always claimed his legal problems not related to WikiLeaks were all tied to his work publishing secret government documents, including his most explosive work in 2011 called “Collateral Murder.” WikiLeaks published video from Iraq in 2007 that showed U.S. forces killing civilians, including two Reuters journalists.
Assange appeared in U.S. federal court in Saipan, an island in the American commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean north of Indonesia, where he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy. Assange’s plane touched down in Australia’s capital city of Canberra Thursday night local time and the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, expressed his support.
“Earlier tonight I was pleased to speak to Mr. Assange to welcome him home and had the opportunity to ask him about his health and have my first discussion with him,” Albanese said, according to Australia’s ABC News. “His safe return to Australia as we know means so much to his family.”
Again, it’s unclear whether Assange will get back to work publishing secret documents for WikiLeaks, but the timing is inauspicious for American democracy. Because, if you’ll recall, the WikiLeaks Twitter account (most likely run by Assange himself at the time) actively solicited a political appointment from the Trump administration in exchange for a pardon just before the 2016 election. And with Trump on the ballot again, who knows what might happen.