Those charges stemmed from WikiLeaks' release in 2010 of hundreds of thousands of classified US military documents on Washington's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - one of the largest breaches of secret information in US history. "I believed the First Amendment protected that activity but I accept that it was ... a violation of the espionage statute." Chief US District Judge Ramona V Manglona accepted his guilty plea, noting that the US government indicated there was no personal victim from Assange's actions. Assange's UK and Australian lawyer Jennifer Robinson thanked the Australian government for its years of diplomacy in securing Assange's release. "This is something that has been considered, patient, worked through in a calibrated way, which is how Australia conducts ourselves."
