Wikileaks founder Julian Assange may finally be nearing a deal with the Department of Justice that would see him plead guilty for leaking a trove of classified documents concerning the U.S. Military, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. Part of the deal would allow Assange, who is currently behind bars in London, to stave off extradition—an issue that’s still playing out in British courts as the U.S. has vied for Assange to be tried stateside and, pending a conviction, be placed in a federal prison. The prospective deal would involve Assange pleading guilty to a lesser charge of mishandling classified information. That would allow him to remain in England, with his five years behind bars there counting as credit toward his overall sentence, the Journal reported, but not his seven years of self-exile inside an Ecuador embassy. Assange, 52, could otherwise face as many as 175 years in a U.S. prison if he were to be extradited and convicted on spy charges. His leaking of hundreds of thousands of classified documents in 201o caused a firestorm within the U.S. Military and intelligence agencies, but he’s still garnered thousands of supporters that have rallied for his release.
