Assange said he and his lawyers would now have a discussion with the US Department of Justice about the investigation against him over Manning's leaks, to see if there is "some way ... to drop it" or if he will be extradited to the United States. Assange spoke to Waleed Aly from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Credit:The Project "What are you going to do with this case? Are you going to keep it going?" Assange said he would ask investigators. "Am I going to have to stay here in the embassy forever? Is there some way that you guys can drop it? Or can we look at under what circumstances I would be extradited to the United States?" The United States has not filed any charges against Assange.

He has lived in the embassy since June 2012, after a court ordered his arrest and extradition to Sweden on suspicion of rape and molestation. He was interviewed about the allegations in November. Assange said Manning's "liberation" was a "major strategic victory", however it wasn't a result of his offer - so there was no need for him to immediately agree to extradition. "I'm not an idiot," he said. "Saying I'm willing to accept extradition doesn't mean I'm saying that I'm willing to be a complete idiot and throw all my lawyers away and so on. No, we're going to have a discussion with the DoJ [Department of Justice] about what that looks like. The ball is in their court." The 45-year-old Australian said that, from the US government's perspective, reducing Manning's sentence would make life harder for him, which meant it was "OK". "If we give Chelsea Manning clemency, what's the result? It's going to make life hard for Assange," Assange said.

"Either he's going to get extradited to the United States or we're going to show he's a liar, and both of those things are going to make life hard for Assange, and therefore it's OK to pardon Chelsea Manning, and that's what happened." In the wide-ranging interview, Assange reiterated previous denials that Democratic Party emails leaked to WikiLeaks were "not [from] a member of the Russian government". He said it was hypocritical for Democrats to be "utterly savage and disgusting" about the leaks when they had previously supported him, but "that's politics". When asked if he cared about the motivation of those who leaked the emails to him, he repeatedly said: "we care". "We care. We care, in a variety of different ... it can vary, but we care," Assange responded.