LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 19: Julian Assange gestures as he speaks to the media from the balcony of the Embassy Of Ecuador on May 19, 2017 in London, England. Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange plans to plead guilty as part of a plea deal with the U.S. Justice Department that will allow him to go free after spending five years in a British prison, according to court documents. Assange was charged by criminal information — which typically signifies a plea deal — with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, the court documents say. Court documents revealing Assange's plea deal were filed Monday evening in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean. A superseding indictment was returned against Assange more than five years ago, in May 2019, and a second superseding indictment was returned in June 2020.

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Persons: Julian Assange, Jack Taylor, Assange, Barack Obama's, Chelsea Manning, —, Robert Mueller, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Trump, Putin, Manning, Obama Organizations: U.S . Justice Department, Department, WikiLeaks, Northern, Ecuadorian Embassy, Court, Democratic National Committee Locations: ENGLAND, Ecuador, London, England, U.S, Afghanistan, Iraq, Northern Mariana Islands, Australia, London —, United States, Russian