>From the perspective of freedom of the press in the United States, the best way for Assange's case to help journalism and journalists exposing state secrets wo

>From the perspective of freedom of the press in the United States, the best way for Assange's case to help journalism and journalists exposing state secrets would be for him to be successfully extradited and to be acquitted at trial for his purported crimes. IIUC, the charges[0] against Assange are for violations of the Espionage Act of 1917[1] and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)[2]. No journalist has ever been convicted under the Espionage Act. As such, it's unlikely in the extreme that Assange would be. The charges under the CFAA are, as I understand it, based on providing advice to Chelsea Manning. Which seems pretty weak sauce for a conviction. What's more, even if Assange were convicted for those charges, he'd face a maximum sentence of five years (with 54 days per year sentence reduction for good behavior). I would expect that any plea deal would include only the CFAA charges and that Assange would be sentenced to time served and immediately deported. I say that because bringing all this up is more of an embarrassment to the US government than it is to Assange. My take is that had Assange not jumped bail and hid out in the Ecuadorian embassy for seven years, he'd have served his time (if he was convicted at all) and would have been a free man for quite some time by now, albeit persona non grata in the US. N.B.: IANAL. [0] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/wikileaks-founder-charged-superseding-indictment https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/wikileaks-founder-charged-sup... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espionage_Act_of_1917 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espionage_Act_of_1917 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act [0] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/wikileaks-founder-charged-superseding-indictment https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/wikileaks-founder-charged-sup...