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Notes -
The guardian on Assange and Biden considering to drop the charges.
To my surprise, this is actually a take echoed by Glenn Greenwood:
The facts go like this:
The Guardian/Greenwood narrative would have to go like this:
My narrative would go something like this:
What your narrative doesn't explain is why the US is considering dropping charges now - assuming that they actually are considering that and it's not just another deception.
I'm not sure your timeline is correct - I thought the US maintained that there were no charges against Assange until he was arrested in the UK. I do agree that the USA absolutely wanted to get it's hands on Assange while lying through it's teeth that it didn't want him. I don't see that as a partisan issue. When the US put in it's extradition request 15 minutes after Assange was booted out of the Ecuadorian embassy the verb used was that the charges were 'unsealed', implying that they had been in place for some time.
But the idea that these Swedish charges were a trumped up excuse just to get him into the hands of the Americans doesn't pass the smell test for me. My impression is that the Swedish are not particularly sympathetic to the goals of the US intelligence or military community, are generally appalled by the state of the US justice/prison system, and are not particularly beholden to the US in a way that would make extradition especially likely. Certainly I think the Swedish were less likely to extradite Assange than the British, who notably have still not extradited him. Additionally, because of the way extradition law works, had he submitted to the European arrest warrant, and the US had then put in an extradition request, then both Sweden and the UK would have had to agree to the extradition to the US. He would have had twice the protection that he currently has. If he was worried that he couldn't trust the Europeans not to sell him out to the Americans, why was he even operating in Europe in the first place? His story just doesn't add up for me.
Finally, and I realise this isn't necessarily relevant to your points, I want to add that I have zero sympathy towards Assange. His game plan seems to have been to hole up in the embassy and then whinge about being a 'political prisoner' and 'held without trial' while doing everything in his power to avoid any trial, even on apolitical charges. 'Victim of psychological torture' - bollocks. He was just straight up a fugitive from justice and his prison sentence for breaching the UK bail act was fair and just. His argument was basically that in order to be safe from the evil machinations of the Americans, he had to be functionally immune to any part of the European justice system, which is obviously absurd. The man is a weasel, and the most surprising thing about this entire episode is that it took him seven whole years to wear out his welcome with the Ecuadorians.
There are several potentially unrelated items:
Britain is close to making a decision on extradition of Assange to the US
Australia Parliament in February this year decided to formally request the US to drop the charges against Assange
Biden made the stray comment after being asked by a US reporter during a visit by the Japanese Prime Minister
The AUKUS alliance is currently looking at expanding to include Japan
The Australian PM said something today about the release of Assange as being in Australia's National Interest
My guess is that its just a slow response from the US government in considering Australia's request from February because of the multiple levels/departments of the US government that have an interest in this. Also there is a very low chance (~10% chance) that some of this is about keeping Australia happy by throwing them a bone at the same time they're looking at upgrading a regional alliance.
Why do the Australians suddenly care about Assange?
He is an Australian citizen
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