Julian Assange is banned from the US after pleading guilty to espionage in exchange for his freedom as DoJ lays out in scathing detail how WikiLeaks founder put innocent lives at risk

Julian Assange has been indefinitely banned from entering the US after pleading guilty to a felony espionage charge.

The WikiLeaks founder has just been released without probation or supervision after a hearing in a US federal court on the Pacific island of Saipan. 

The US Justice Department released a lengthy statement detailing Assange's crimes, announcing the guilty plea, and his ban from returning to the country.

'Pursuant to the plea agreement, Assange is prohibited from returning to the United States without permission,' it said.

'The guilty plea concludes a criminal matter that dates back to March 2018, when Assange was first indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia.'

Julian Assange has walked free from court and  is flying home to Australia after pleading guilty to a single espionage charge

Assange waves to the many supporters who cheered for him after he left the courthouse

That plea deal with American prosecutors paved the way for him to return home without fear of arrest after 14 years as a wanted criminal suspect.

Assange was wanted for espionage since 2010 after WikiLeaks released thousands of classified US military documents, and for unrelated rape charges in Sweden.

He fled to the Ecuadorian embassy in London in June 2012 when he lost his appeal against extradition to Sweden, and spent seven years hiding there until he was kicked out and locked up in a top-security prison since April 2019.

The DoJ detailed how Assange conspired with US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to illegally acquire and disseminate the documents.

'Beginning in late 2009, Assange and WikiLeaks actively solicited United States classified information, including by publishing a list of Most Wanted Leaks that sought, among other things, bulk classified documents,' it said.

Assange recruited people who had access to classified material, along with hackers who could break into computer systems and steal it.

He publicly encouraged them to obtain classified material 'by any means necessary', including stealing it, and deliver it to him.

The DoJ detailed how Assange conspired with US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning (pictured last year after her release) to illegally acquire and disseminate the documents

Manning was one of these recruits, and between January and May 2010 downloaded hundreds of thousands of documents and reports.

'Many of them classified at the secret level and relating to the national defense, which signified that unauthorized disclosure could cause serious damage to United States national security,' the DoJ said.

The files included 90,000 Afghanistan war-related significant activity reports, 400,000 from the Iraq, 800 Joint Task Force Guantanamo detainee assessment briefs, and 250,000 US Department of State cables. 

Other files were rules of engagement for the Iraq war that defined the 'circumstances and limitations' under which US military could attack enemy forces.

Assange and Manning frequently communicated online and he pushed her to find and send more documents.

When Manning told him 'thats [sic] all I really have got left', he replied 'curious eyes never run dry, in my experience'.

After receiving the files, Assange posted most of them on WikiLeaks - 75,000 of the Afghan war documents, 400,000 of the Iraq war files, 100,000 of the State Department calbles, and all of the Guantanamo detainee briefs.

'Unlike news organizations that published redacted versions of some of the classified documents... Assange and WikiLeaks disclosed many of the raw classified documents without removing any personally identifying information,' the DoJ said.

Assange's journey from London to Saipan, where he faced court, and his scheduled flight to Canberra - the Austrslian capital - after the hearing

The plane carrying Assange to Canberra takes off from Saipan

'In many instances, the classified documents... [were] in a raw or unredacted form that placed individuals who had assisted the US Government at great personal risk.

'Assange’s decision to reveal the names of human sources illegally shared with him by Manning created a grave and imminent risk to human life.'

The DoJ said some of the information was from journalists, religious leaders, human rights advocates, and political dissidents who give it to the US in confidence 'at significant risk to their own safety'.

'By publicly releasing these documents without redacting the names of human sources or other identifying information, Assange subjected these individuals to serious harm and arbitrary detention,' it said.

The statement said Assange acknowledged in public statements that he knew doing this could put those people at risk of harm.

Assange and his lawyers maintain that no harm was caused by WikiLeaks posting the documents, including in statements after the curt hearing.

Manning was jailed to decades for sending Assange the documents, but her sentence was commuted by then-US President Barrack Obama and she walked free after just seven years behind bars.

Assange has been a wanted man since 2010 when the documents were released, the largest security breaches of their kind in US military history.

In June 2012, as authorities circled him for that and over 'credible and reliable' sex crime allegations from a woman in Sweden, he fled into London's Ecuadorian embassy where he remained for seven years in often farcical circumstances.

Manning was jailed to decades for sending Assange the documents, but her sentence was commuted by then-US President Barrack Obama and she walked free after just seven years behind bars

Ecuador eventually tired of him being there, revoked his asylum, and kicked him out - leading to his immediate arrest and imprisonment in the UK while he fought extradition to the US.

After five years of court battles, and with Assange approaching the amount of time Manning spent in prison, the US negotiated a plea deal.

Assange refused to set foot on mainland US soil for fear of being arrested, so he instead faced court on the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific near his native Australia. 

Judge Ramona V Manglona accepted his guilty plea and debated whether to fine Assange up to US$150,000 or order probation or supervised release.

After discussion with Assange's lawyer Barry Pollack and US Attorney Matthew McKenzie, she decided against either and let him walk out a free man.

'You will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man. I hope there will be some peace restored,' Manglona declared.

'Given the factual basis that accounts the whole saga of events that constitutes the basis for this very serious espionage charge against you…I am in fact sentencing you to a period of time served,' she said.

'I am not imposing any period of supervised release.'

The judge noted that the island was soon to celebrate 80 years of its own freedom. 

'Now there is some peace, you need to restore with yourself when you walk out and pursue your life as a free man,' she said.

After falling out with the South American nation's rulers he was dragged out of his bolthole in 2019 and locked up in Belmarsh while the US attempted to extradite him

Assange has been detained in one of the UK's most high-security prisons since April 2019. He is pictured here in May 2019

An emotional Assange could barely speak as he said 'I do' after being asked if he understood the details of the agreement.

US Attorney Matthew McKenzie then said the US would withdraw its extradition request for Assange in the UK.

Assange moments later walked out of the court to huge cheers from his supporters, giving them a wave but not saying anything before getting into a waiting car. 

He was driven directly to the airport where he flew out on Flight VJT199, which departed at 1pm on Wednesday, local time.

Assange will land in Canberra, Australia, at 7.39pm local time, where he will be reunited with his wife Stella and two children.