US Attorney Accidentally Leaks Indictment Against Assange

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed charges in preparation to pursue a case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The information was leaked as a result of mishandling of documents by Assistant U.S. Attorney, Kellen Dwyer.

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"The Justice Department is preparing to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and is increasingly optimistic it will be able to get him into a U.S. courtroom," The Wall Street Journal reported, on Thursday.

According to Wikileaks, the information became known after a 'copy-and-paste' error in which Dwyer mentioned Assange in a document pertaining to another unrelated case, which was originally filed in the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, in August.

However, the precise charges against Assange are not yet known and could refer to the U.S. Espionage Act of 1917, which criminalizes the publication of U.S. defense-related information. U.S. officials have yet to comment on the leak of the sealed indictment.

Julian Assange's public notoriety increased in 2007 when Wikileaks published information that contradicted the United States' account of international affair procedures.

Three years later, when WikiLeaks unleashed about 391,000 documents revealing that the U.S. Government allowed torture practices during the Iraq war, Assange was indicted by Swedish prosecutors for alleged sexual harassment.

In 2011, the High Court of London authorized the extradition of Assange to Sweden. However, in June 2012, Assange sought refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he has remained since then.