President Joe Biden has indicated that he is "considering" a request from Australia to drop charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. 

Biden made the admission during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House on Wednesday. Assange is currently facing 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse, exposing him to a maximum of 175 years in prison.

“We’re considering it,” Biden said in response to a question as to whether the U.S. would accept a request from Australia to drop charges against Assange. 

Video of Joe Biden replying ‘we’re considering it’ to a reporter asking whether the US will drop the charges against Julian Assange

Did he mean to say this? Or was this another slip-up? https://t.co/N3cmlaCjus https://t.co/HQoVUKmoyc pic.twitter.com/lCDtiQp572

— Afshin Rattansi (@afshinrattansi) April 10, 2024

In February, Australia's parliament passed a measure with the support of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese demanding the return of Assange back to his native homeland. 

"People will have a range of views about Mr Assange's conduct," Albanese said. "But regardless of where people stand, this thing cannot just go on and on and on indefinitely."

U.S. prosecutors have wanted Assange over his involvement in the publication of classified documents through WikiLeaks, which released a vast trove of classified materials, including diplomatic cables and military documents, exposing sensitive information about U.S. military operations and diplomatic activities.

These included a video from a U.S. military helicopter, which showed civilians being killed in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

Having spent seven years in self-exile in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and the last five years in the high-security Belmarsh Prison, Assange is currently fighting extradition to the U.S. from Britain. His case was recently put on hold over concerns from London's High Court that he could face the death penalty.

Tomorrow Julian will have spent five years in Belmarsh high security prison.#FreeAssangeNOW#Assange5YearsInBelmarsh pic.twitter.com/IUU1k3GWtU

— Stella Assange #FreeAssangeNOW (@Stella_Assange) April 10, 2024

In March, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz similarly urged British courts to deny his extradition to the U.S, citing the "persecution" that he would be likely to face here. 

I am of the opinion that it would be good if the British courts granted him the necessary protection because he has to expect persecution in the USA, given the fact that he has betrayed American state secrets.

During the last hearing the representatives of the United States were unable to persuade the British judges that the potential sentence would happen in a framework that would be reasonable from Britain’s perspective.

Days before leaving office in January 2017, President Barack Obama commuted the sentence of whistleblower Chelsea Manning, who had provided many of the most explosive documents that Assange had published. Biden was vice president at the time. 

Obama said at the time,

I feel very comfortable that justice has been served. Let’s be clear: Chelsea Manning has served a tough prison sentence. The notion that the average person who is thinking about disclosing vital classified information would think that it goes unpunished … I don’t think would get that impression from the sentence that Chelsea Manning has served.

The Justice Department has so far declined to comment.