Julian Assange reaches plea deal with U.S., allowing him to go free

(NBC NEWS) -- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange plans to plead guilty as part of a plea deal with the U.S. Justice Department that will allow him to go free after spending five years in a British prison, according to court documents.

Assange was charged by criminal information — which typically signifies a plea deal — with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, the court documents say.

U.S. charges against Assange stem from one of the largest publications of classified information in American history, which took place during the first term of Barack Obama's presidency. Starting in late 2009, according to the government, Assange conspired with Chelsea Manning, a military intelligence analyst, to disclose tens of thousands of activity reports about the war in Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of reports about the war in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of State Department cables and assessment briefs of Guantanamo Bay detainees using his WikiLeaks website.

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