Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, agreed to plead guilty on Monday to a single felony count of illegally obtaining and disclosing national security material in exchange for his release from a British prison, ending his long and bitter standoff with the United States. Mr. Assange, 52, was granted his request to appear before a federal judge at one of the more remote outposts of the federal judiciary, the courthouse in Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, according to a brief court filing made public late Monday. It was a fitting final twist in the case against Mr. Assange, who doggedly opposed extradition to the U.S. mainland. The islands are a United States commonwealth in the middle of the Pacific Ocean — and much closer to Mr. Assange’s native Australia, where he is a citizen, than courts in the continental United States or Hawaii. Shortly after the deal was disclosed, WikiLeaks said that Mr. Assange had left London.

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Persons: Julian Assange, Assange, doggedly, ” Matthew J, McKenzie Organizations: WikiLeaks, United, Australia “, Justice Locations: United States, Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, Britain, U.S, Assange’s, Australia, Hawaii, London