Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has long been targeted by the United States for his role in releasing secret government documents.

Now he is just one flight away from being in American custody after years of seclusion in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. A newly unsealed indictment showed that American prosecutors charged him with conspiring to hack a government computer.

Some quick background: Mr. Assange shot to international prominence in 2010 when WikiLeaks published secret material about American military activity in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as confidential cables sent among diplomats. In 2012, he took refuge at the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faced questions about sexual assault allegations.

More recently, Mr. Assange has been under attack for his organization's release during the 2016 presidential campaign of thousands of emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee, leading to revelations that embarrassed the party and Hillary Clinton's campaign.

American investigators have linked those disclosures to efforts by Donald Trump's campaign to damage Ms. Clinton, but Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russian election meddling, did not file any charges against Mr. Assange.

Here's a fuller timeline of how Mr. Assange and WikiLeaks got to this point.