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Julian Assange reportedly indicted by Justice Department

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been charged under sealed indictment amid accusations that he published American secrets, a report said Thursday.

The indictment against Assange was inadvertently revealed when Assistant US Attorney Kellen S. Dwyer urged a federal judge to “keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged,” according to the Washington Post.

Dwyer also told the judge that the charges would “need to remain sealed until Assange is arrested,” the paper said.

The revelations comes as special counsel Robert Mueller has probed WikiLeaks’ role in publishing emails from the Democratic National Committee and longtime Hillary Clinton aide John Podesta.

US intelligence agencies have alleged the emails were hacked by Russian spies and transferred to WikiLeaks.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Thursday that Justice Department officials were preparing to prosecute Assange.





A public indictment of Assange is being weighed as a means to trigger his removal from the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he has lived since 2012, the Journal said.

Ecuadorean officials have long since grown tired of hosting Assange, with that country’s new president, Lenin Moreno, calling the white-haired leaker a “stone in our shoe.”





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