All questions will resolve before the US election (November 5th). Except those stated as resolving faster.
Resolution will be based on consensus of media reports -- people send me relevant links as needed.
I may add more independent questions later as requested, although the plan is to be comprehensive here.
Free Assange!
1,000
3.00"The criminal case of international intrigue, which had played out for years in major world stages of Washington and London, came to a surprise end in a most unusual setting with Assange, 52, entering his plea Wednesday morning in federal court in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands.
The American commonwealth in the Pacific is relatively close to Assange’s native Australia and accommodated his desire to avoid entering the continental United States.
The deal required the iconoclastic internet publisher to admit guilt to a single felony count but also permitted him to return to Australia without any time in an American prison. The judge sentenced him to the five years he’d already spent behind bars in the United Kingdom, fighting extradition to the United States on an Espionage Act indictment that could have carried a lengthy prison sentence in the event of a conviction. He was holed up for seven years before that in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London."
https://apnews.com/article/assange-justice-department-plea-wikileaks-saipan-australia-00eb380879ff636cc9b916f82f82ed40
I don't 100% know if this counts as entering the US. Will have to look at precedent. I should have made this clear ahead of time.
Probably counts as US -- I suppose you need a passport and clear US customs. Same as Guam or other Pacific islands...
Deal accepted, sentenced to time served.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/25/world/australia/julian-assange-plea-deal-guilty.html
So, freed from UK, arrived on US soil, appeared in court, and now the US judge accepted the guilty plea: