Depending on who you ask, Julian Assange is either a truth-seeking journalist and a martyr for free speech

or a foreign agent who did nothing less than jeopardize America's national security.

Whichever side you're on, the fact is that he will soon finally be free.

But after five years in a high-security London prison and seven years exiled on the Ecuadorian embassy,

the damage may already be done, not just to him personally,

though it's hard to imagine how he can ever lead a normal life again, but to the principles of

accountability. Let's be clear, Julian Assange didn't commit war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He didn't even steal the documents which showed that America did. Assange published information

that other people stole, and in doing so, he exposed

some very uncomfortable truths about America's conduct in an already illegal war, humiliating

some of the most powerful people on earth. And as a result, he's faced half a lifetime

of legal misery. He was denounced without credible evidence as a Russian spy. At one point, the CIA and Mike Pompeo allegedly considered abducting and murdering him

as he resisted extradition to the United States.

And on his face, that feels like a grave injustice.

But there's another side to the debate about Assange,

represented in this viral, unscensored exchange,

between his wife Stella and Ambassador John Bolton.

Committed clear criminal activity. He's no more a journalist than the chair I'm sitting on.

The information that he divulged did in fact put many people in jeopardy. It undercut the ability

of the United States to have confidential

diplomatic communications, not just with other foreign governments, but in many countries with

dissidents, people who even speaking to American diplomats could find themselves in trouble.

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