Biden says he’s considering Australia’s request to drop prosecution of Wikileaks founder Assange

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden says he’s considering a request from Australia to drop the decade-long U.S. push to prosecute Wikileaks founder Julian Assange for publishing American classified documents. For years, Australia has called on the U.S. to drop its prosecution against Assange, an Australian citizen who has fought U.S. extradition efforts from prison in the U.K. Assange has been indicted on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over his website’s publication of classified U.S. documents almost 15 years ago. American prosecutors allege Assange helped U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks published. Assange’s supporters say he’s a journalist protected by the First Amendment.