Julian Assange, the Wikileaks founder, appears on the brink of being publicly charged after US prosecutors accidentally named him in court filings.

The US investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election is known to be looking into how Mr Assange’s outfit published thousands of hacked Democratic Party emails before the vote.

A filing made in the Eastern District of Virginia on Thursday discussed procedures ”to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged”.

Joshua Stueve, a spokesman for the US attorney’s office in Virginia, said: “The court filing was made in error. That was not the intended name for this filing.”

It remains unknown whether Mr Assange has been secretly charged already, if he will be soon or if the filing was just a complete mistake. It is also unclear what the potential charges could entail.