Mike Pence says release of Julian Assange is 'miscarriage of justice'

Former Vice President Mike Pence said it is a "miscarriage of justice" that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange cut a deal with the US Justice Department that would allow him to return to Australia after pleading guilty to violating American espionage law. 

On Monday, Assange, 52, was released from London’s Belmarsh Prison, where he has spent over five years. He was later spotted boarding a private plane at an airport in London. 

Pence criticized the deal, saying, “Julian Assange endangered the lives of our troops in a time of war and should have been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The Biden administration’s plea deal with Assange is a miscarriage of justice and dishonors the service and sacrifice of the men and women of our Armed Forces and their families.” 

The Trump administration’s DOJ accused Assange of directing former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to obtain the classified information that included the names of Afghans and Iraqis who provided information to American and coalition forces. 

Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison after being convicted of violating the Espionage Act and other offenses for leaking the information but was released by then-President Barack Obama in 2017, after seven years in prison. 

Wikileaks was known for several newsworthy stories, including a leaked video of a Bagdad airstrike from two US helicopters that killed civilians in Iraq's capital. 

Assange previously spent years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London fighting extradition to the US after being indicted following WikiLeaks releasing US classified material relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.