 aboard a charter jet, hours after pleading guilty to obtaining and publishing US military secrets. The plea deal required Assange to admit guilt to a single felony count, but also permitted him to return to Australia without any time in an American prison. The judge sentenced him to the five years he'd already spent behind bars in the UK fighting extradition to the US on an Espionage Act indictment. Barry Pollack, one of Assange's lawyers, said the deal ultimately vindicated Assange.