On Wednesday, a US court in the Northern Mariana Islands sentenced Assange to time served as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors that ended his 14-year legal battle. The WikiLeaks founder then left for Canberra.
"The process was in a complete stalemate but in the USA there has been a growing questioning about why President [Joe] Biden has achieved no movement on this dossier. With an election on the horizon, the President did not want yet another issue that annoyed some of his more radical voters, so he was more prepared to accept a compromise. The Australian Government has also been doing a lot of quiet lobbying for his release," Balfe said, adding that Assange's release was an unprecedented "one off situation."
The United States previously charged Assange with 18 criminal charges under which, if he was convicted, he could have faced up to 175 years in prison.
The US presidential election is slated for November 2024. The main contenders expected on the ballot are Biden and former US President Donald Trump, who have both won enough delegates' votes to be their respective Democratic and Republican parties' presumptive nominees.