The Justice Department said Monday it is not required under the law to reveal whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been charged in a sealed case, even after an accidental filing in an unrelated case said he had been accused of a crime.

The argument came in response to a Nov. 16 lawsuit by the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press. That group is seeking to unseal the government’s possible charges against Assange that appeared to be revealed accidentally.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg said in a court filing Monday that the Justice Department will neither confirm nor deny whether such charges exist because “neither the First Amendment nor the common law require that the government provide such a confirmation or denial.” Because the possible charges have not been made public, Kromberg said, Assange has either not been charged or the charges are under seal.

“In either event, the government is not required to publicly acknowledge which of those two possibilities happens to be the case with respect to any individual. Because that is precisely what the plaintiff’s application seeks with respect to Julian Assange, it should be denied,” the filing said.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has been investigating how WikiLeaks obtained hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee. According to prosecutors, Russian intelligence was responsible for the hack.

Assange, who has feared extradition to the U.S., has been living in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since 2012. He’s been a controversial figure since 2010, when WikiLeaks began publishing classified government documents.