Julian Assange agrees to extradition...with a twist

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has agreed to be extradited to the US to answer possible charges of espionage in a breakthrough for authorities wanting to bring him to justice.

But there’s one condition ... Assange wants President Barack Obama to grant clemency to military document leaker Chelsea Manning.

Manning is a US Army soldier who was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 over violations of the Espionage Act and other offences after disclosing to Wikileaks almost 750,000 classified or unclassified sensitive military and diplomatic documents.

Known throughout her army life as Brad, Manning was diagnosed with gender identity disorder and is now known as a trans woman.

Manning was sentenced to 35 years in jail and was dishonourably discharged from the US Army.

Assange has been living in the Ecuadorean embassy in London since 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden to answer sexual assault allegations.

The Daily Mail reported that high-profile government whistleblower Edward Snowden also appealed to the outgoing US President on manning’s behalf this week.

Many of Manning’s supporters believe the 35-year sentence in a maximum security facility is excessive.

In a tweet, Assange wrote: "Mr. President, if you grant only one act of clemency as you exit the White House, please: free Chelsea Manning. You alone can save her life.”

Last week Assange accused the Obama administration of trying to "delegitimise" Donald Trump’s impending US presidency over the alleged hacking of election emails.

Assange’s comments came after Barack Obama identified Russia as almost certainly being responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

WikiLeaks subsequently published more than 19,000 internal emails stolen from the DNC, days before the Democratic convention was starting.

The emails showed DNC staffers actively supporting Mrs Clinton when they were publicly promising to remain neutral during the primary elections between Mrs Clinton and her then-rival for the candidacy, Bernie Sanders.

Mr Trump at the time said blaming Russia was deflecting attention from the embarrassing material in the emails -- although he had previously challenged Russia to "find the 30,000 emails that are missing" from Mrs Clinton’s private server.

Assange defended Wikileaks and asserted that the Obama administration were trying to hurt Trump’s image before he heads to the White House on January 20.

"Our publications had wide uptake by the American people, they’re all true. But that’s not the allegation that’s being presented by the Obama White House," Assange said.

"So, why such a dramatic response? Well, the reason is obvious. They’re trying to delegitimise the Trump administration as it goes into the White House.

"They are trying to say that President-elect Trump is not a legitimate president."