UPDATE: WikiLeaks URL featuring DNC emails restored

UPDATE: This story has been updated to reflect that the URL for the database containing the DNC emails is functional again.

Following WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange reaching a plea deal with the United States that saw Assange plead guilty to conspiring to obtain and disclose classified national defense information, WikiLeaks’ entire database of the nearly 45,000 emails leaked from the Democratic National Committee appeared to be no longer active, leading to speculation throughout the internet. The database later appeared to be restored.

The homepage of the leak on WikiLeaks stated "Internal Server Error" when trying to be reached by users. An archived version of the page stated that beginning on July 22, 2016, WikiLeaks "released over 2 publications 44,053 emails and 17,761 attachments from the top of the US Democratic National Committee -- part one of our new Hillary Leaks series." Later, it was again available.

The emails included in the leak include 10,520 from Communications Director Luis Miranda, 3,799 emails from National Finance Director Jordon Kaplan, 3.095 emails from Finance Chief of Staff Scott Comer, 1,742 emails from Finanace Director of Data & Strategic Initiatives Daniel Parrish, 1,611 emails from Finance Director Allen Zachary, 938 emails from Senior Advisor Andrew Wright, and 751 emails from Northern California Finance Director Robert (Erik) Stowe. The emails covered a period spanning from January 2015 to May 2016. In April of 2015, Hillary Clinton formally announced that she was running for president in the famed election cycle that saw Trump win his first term.

The DNC email leak showed how the committee favored the Clinton campaign and attempted to undercut then-Democrat residential candidate Bernie Sanders’ campaign.

In a press release, the Department of Justice stated that Assange entered his guilty plea on Tuesday. Assange had been in a UK prison for 62 months fighting extradition to the US. Assange was transported to the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory, "with the venue reflecting Assange’s opposition to traveling to the continental United States to enter his guilty plea and the proximity of this federal U.S. District Court to Assange’s country of citizenship, Australia, to which he will return."

Assange received a 62-month sentence with credit for the time served in UK, after which he departed to Australia. As part of the plea agreement, Assange is prohibited from entering the US without permission.

Assange, the DOJ alleged, conspired with former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning "to unlawfully obtain and disclose classified documents relating to the national defense. After obtaining classified national defense information from Manning, and aware of the harm that dissemination of such national defense information would cause, Assange disclosed this information on WikiLeaks."

Manning, between January and May 2010, downloaded "four nearly complete U.S. government databases," containing around 90,000 Afghanistan war-related significant activity reports, 400,000 Iraq war-related significant activity reports, and 250,000 US Department of State cables, among other things. Manning sent these files to Assange, who posted them to WikiLeaks and many of which were in their unredacted form, revealing personal identifying information.

"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."