WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is back in Australia as a free man, having resolved through a plea deal a U.S. Justice Department case charging him with obtaining and publishing government secrets on his secret-spilling website.

It was a stunning resolution to a polarizing drama that landed at the intersection of press freedom and national security, spanned three presidential administrations and played out across multiple continents.

Here are some things to know:

Tuesday’s release of Julian Assange from 14 years of confinement is to be celebrated on humanitarian grounds. But as we celebrate his return to his wife and children, let us take this moment to examine how our nation, once the global champion of press freedom, came to persecute this brave journalist.

Julian Assange is no martyr, but the Trump administration’s continued pursuit of the WikiLeaks founder ended up making him one — in the eyes of many Australians.

In his home country, Assange had long been a darling of human rights lawyers, hard-left and far-right figures who took up his cause, mostly motivated by an anti-deep-state mentality.

Julian Assange has arrived in Australia after walking free from an American court following a deal with US authorities.

He pleaded guilty to one criminal charge under the deal after fighting against extradition to the US, where he was accused of disclosing military secrets.

What did Julian Assange do?

Mr Assange ran Wikileaks, a website that published many confidential or restricted official reports related to war, spying and corruption.

Julian Assange has walked out of a U.S. court in the Northern Mariana Islands a free man, putting an end to his dozen years of incarceration, first in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, hiding from justice, then in a British prison, awaiting an extradition to America that will never come. Assange is now headed home to Australia, his legal troubles ended. 

Anarchists and America-haters might cheer the release of Julian Assange from his UK prison after striking a plea deal with US prosecutors, but make no mistake: He’s no hero.

Nor is he a “journalist” whose participation in the theft and distribution of mountains of extremely sensitive information deserves First Amendment protection.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Wednesday walked free after pleading guilty in a U.S. court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific, to a felony charge for publishing U.S. military secrets.

According to documents from the U.S. court in Saipan, the largest island and capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, Assange pleaded guilty to one criminal count of conspiracy to obtain documents, writing and notes connected with the U.S. national defense and communicating these materials.

Finally. After more than five years locked inside HMP Belmarsh, Britain’s most secure prison, and seven years confined to the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Julian Assange can breathe some fresh, free air. It is certainly a day to celebrate, but also one to demand answers. Why – why, for heaven’s sake – has it taken so long? And what about all the others who languish in crazily overcrowded British jails?

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is free, having struck a deal with the United States Justice Department that will credit him for time served and allow him to go home. As someone who campaigned against his detention, I’m happy for him, his wife Stella, his brother Gabriel Shipton, and the other members of his inner circle who kept the case in the public eye all these years. They deserve to celebrate today.

Joe Biden’s Justice Department has elected to resolve a decade-long standoff with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange by surrendering.