Barnaby Joyce's trip to US to campaign for Assange release

"The problem I have is that Mr Assange did not commit a crime in Australia and under Australian laws," Mr Joyce told the Leader.

"And he is not a US citizen. And he was not in the United States when the action occurred."

The New England MP is heading to the US along with a delegation of five others from across the political spectrum on September 20 and 21, to meet with senior congressmen and senators about dropping the case against Assange.

"What I hope to achieve is not to go over and lecture or grandstand in the United States; that will achieve nothing except antagonise people," Mr Joyce said.

"But to show that the issue with Australia now is across all political parties and that this needs to come to a conclusion as these things should between close allies."

The delegation also includes Labor's Tony Zapia, Liberal senator Alex Antic, Greens senators Peter Whish-Wilson and David Shoebridge and independent MP Monique Ryan.

"My role as a former deputy prime minister of Australia is to show there's a form of gravitas about this, and that we have former senior officeholders who are part of the delegation," Mr Joyce said.

However, Mr Joyce could not reveal too many details of his visit, which is being paid for by the Assange team.

His visit comes only a month before Prime Minister Albanese's first official visit to meet US President Joe Biden in Washington DC from October 23 to 26, with the official state dinner on October 25.

Mr Joyce said if the PM does discuss the Assange issue with President Biden, then it will be done "in quiet discussions in confidence behind closed doors".

Mr Assange has been locked up in the UK's high-security Belmarsh Prison for about four years following his arrest in 2019, when the Australian national's asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy was revoked after seven years.

His legal team is currently waiting on his final hearing in the UK which, if convicted, could see him extradited to the US within 24 hours to face a possible jail term of up to 175 years.

Mr Joyce said he has never met Mr Assange and would not know if he would even like him, but has urged people to picture him as if he "was your son, or daughter, or brother".

"I live under the belief of a rule of law under Australian statute law," Mr Joyce said.

"And I believe other people, regardless of my personal views of them, should have those same liberties and protections."

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Mr Joyce said if the US is successful in extraditing Mr Assange, then it would set a dangerous precedent for other countries to follow.

"Remember, not only did he not commit a crime in the United States, he never stole anything ... he got a leak," Mr Joyce said.

"The person whon stole the information, his name was Bradley Manning [now Chelsea Manning] and Chelsea Manning has received a pardon and is walking the streets as a free person."

Then-US president Barack Obama pardoned former US Army intelligence analyst Manning in 2017, about four years after being found guilty of 20 charges relating to the leaking of classified military and diplomatic material documents the year she was arrested in 2010.

The documents leaked by Manning included the distressing-to-watch and now infamous Collateral Murder video that Wikileaks' founder Julian Assange published, among others, in 2010.

The video showed the horrific shooting of more than a dozen people on the ground from a US Apache helicopter in the Iraq war of 2007.

Julian Assange's brother Gabriel Shipton said in a statement the team "is very grateful to Mr Joyce and the other delegates for listening to the wishes of the nine out of ten Australians who say that 'enough is enough' and Julian should be released immediately and returned home to Australia."

The "Australian delegation brings a powerful message from one of the US closest allies, that the continued vengeful pursuit of Australian publisher and journalist Julian Assange is beginning to take its toll on the close friendship the two nations have enjoyed through history," Mr Shipton said in a statement.

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