Fucking finally. The Obama administration declined to go after Assange because they knew how bad it would look for press freedoms in the US.
If they went after Assange, they could rightly go after the New York Times as well. NYT general counsel has said as much for years. Letting the case continue as-is was setting up for long term disaster regarding press freedoms.
The Trump administration had zero qualms about killing press freedoms. I gotta be at least reasonably thankful the Biden administration is trying to find a less severe offramp for what the Trump admin started.
Whatever you think of Assange (it is perfectly valid to not like him or what he does), this case was a dangerous precedent for press freedom in the US, so having it downgraded to less severe charges would be a good thing.