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Julian Assange's return home was a long time coming those close to him wondered

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if he would ever make it out of prison can you describe the last 24 hours for

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us it's hard to describe we've been waiting for this for so long

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striking a deal between the US Department of Justice and the man they had been pursuing for

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years seemed at times impossible it was incredibly difficult logistically politically and legally

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for the first time two of the people closest to those negotiations reveal crucial details about

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how the deal was struck the sticking points the key players and how it nearly all fell over none of us

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when we started this case thought it was going to end in a courthouse in the Pacific

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in 2019 Julian Assange was arrested for breach of bail after Ecuador withdrew his asylum soon after he was

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indicted under the US Espionage Act for publishing classified military and diplomatic documents as

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well as this infamous video showing journalists and civilians killed by US forces in 2019 the US under

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the Trump administration sought Assange's extradition from the UK Barry Pollock says the US Department of

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Justice was in no mood to negotiate after it became public that he had been charged their position was

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when he gets to the United States and has his initial appearance in the Eastern District Virginia we'll talk to

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you then after Joe Biden was elected president Barry Pollock saw an opportunity to negotiate the

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Biden Department of Justice had issued new guidelines on prosecuting journalists and so I wanted to make a

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presentation to them why I thought under their new policy the prosecution should not proceed

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the department listened but didn't act but in 2022 another election result helped change the game

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just over a month after he was elected Anthony Albanese raised Assange's case with President Biden in Madrid

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around a year later in London the Prime Minister acknowledged that things were moving slowly

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I know it's frustrating I share the frustration I can't do more than make very clear what my position is and

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the US administration is certainly very aware of what the Australian government's position is but behind the

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scenes there was movement Jen Robinson says the Prime Minister gave her some important information he and I

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had a conversation where he said to me that they had been having conversations with the US administration and

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he felt that there was a deal to be done but it had to be done by us as his lawyers Anthony Albanese's new

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ambassador in Washington Kevin Rudd was about to become a key player in the push to release Assange I then flew to

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Washington to meet with Kevin Rudd our ambassador and my US co-counsel Barry Pollock where we briefed

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ambassador right about the case and talked about what this was going to take Kevin was very vested in

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this and he worked very doggedly with both the Department of Justice and myself trying to nudge each party to

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get to a resolution that was acceptable to both of us and I think a lot of times when you have a

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complex negotiation like that having a third party almost serving as a mediator to try to bring the

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two sides together is enormously helpful and Kevin played that role but despite their efforts the

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negotiations ground to a halt we worked on a deal for months that involved a series of misdemeanors

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about mishandling classified information that would have allowed us and him to enter that plea remotely

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and come home to Australia the DOJ then went quiet on that and we heard nothing for months on end but

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then a group of Australian politicians ramped up the pressure a cross-party delegation of MPs visited

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Washington to meet with members of Congress and the Department of Justice I think they made a

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difference I think the bipartisan support in Australia made a difference and I think Prime Minister

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Albany speaking out made a difference I think it was all of those things and the legal case unfolding

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in the UK increased the pressure on the US in February Julian Assange sought leave to appeal to

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the High Court in London it was seen as his last roll of the dice inside the UK legal system to avoid

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extradition but it was the last roll of the dice for the US as well and as internal emails published in

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the Washington Post show their own lawyers were worried one of their trial attorneys wrote the case

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will head to appeal and we will lose they knew the US couldn't guarantee Assange free speech protections

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under the First Amendment an assurance the UK judges were asking for I think they're under pressure on two

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fronts first was there was a very real chance that we were going to win the extradition case on this

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First Amendment ground because in our view the US could not provide a satisfactory assurance about

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protection under the First Amendment but the other point that people miss too is that the US was I

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think concerned about him being extradited and having a very public espionage act prosecution of

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a journalist in an election year at a time one of their journalists is in jail in Russia on espionage

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charges precisely you have a US journalist in prison in Russia Evan Gerskovich and the US is trying to

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negotiate their release and what is the first thing the Russian government is going to say to them look

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at what you're doing to Julian Assange in the lead-up to the hearings Jen Robinson says she rang Australian

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Attorney General Mark Dreyfuss and alerted him about the weaknesses in the US case

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After my conversations with our Attorney General Mark Dreyfuss in January he went and met the Attorney General

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Merrick Garland in the United States and I think that was significant to make clear the Australian government's

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position and also to set out the points that we had raised which is you may well lose this extradition case and this is the moment to get the deal done

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In May two High Court judges ruled that Julian Assange could appeal on First Amendment grounds putting even more pressure on the US to come up with a deal

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We really had two lines in the sand if you will one was that if we were going to reach some negotiated resolution that had to be the end of it Julian was

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not going to do any other any additional prison time the second was that Julian was very firm that he did not

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want to come to the United States for fear that if he did he would be detained on some other charges

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The US was insisting on a felony plea which meant Assange would have to appear in a US court

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The solution to hold proceedings in Saipan a US Commonwealth in the Pacific

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That was a proposal by the Department of Justice I think when it became apparent to them we were

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not going to move on those they came up with a very creative proposal that met our needs

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and that's what led to there being a resolution

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The negotiations over an agreed statement of facts took time as the parties argued over particular points

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I think it's really important to highlight for people what's not in the plea deal and that statement of facts and why it's important

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The first is no actual harm caused to any individual and the US government could not identify one individual

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who was entitled to restitution as a result of these publications

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The second point that's really important is after years of accusing him of hacking of somehow doing something different to journalism

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If you read that statement of facts, it is about receiving and publishing information from a source

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That is absolutely journalistic activity

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Since the guilty plea, the Department of Justice released a statement saying

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Assange's decision to reveal the names of human sources illegally shared with him

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created a grave and imminent risk to human life

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Around a week before his release, the parties finally came to an agreement on a plea deal

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Until the final detail was negotiated and both sides were ready to sign a piece of paper

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You never knew

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How does it feel to be a free man, Mr Assange?

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It's still sinking in that we managed to pull it off and that he's home

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It's been a very long time coming

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How can we cybersecurity know that there's time

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You're the same, it's still going

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I think it's still going

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That's why it's still moving

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You're the same At that point

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It's still going

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I'm your scans

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You're the same

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But it's still going

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I'm sure

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I'm your is

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It's still going