The U.S. Department of Justice is planning to prosecute controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, according to a report Thursday. The department is confident they will be able to get him into a U.S. courtroom, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the plan. Mr. Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London since 2012.
Justice Department officials believe a public indictment may be a means to remove him from the embassy, the report said.
Assange fled to Sweden in 2012 over allegations of sexual assault and rape. Swedish Swedish prosecutors dropped the case last year, but he still faces an arrest for violating his bail conditions if he leaves the embassy.
Ecuadorean officials have publicly complained about hosting Mr. Assange. President Lenin Moreno referred to Mr. Assange as a “stone in our shoe.”
U.S. intelligence officials believe Wikileaks and Russian hackers partnered to release emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 presidential campaign. Special counsel Robert Mueller is said to be investigating connections between Roger Stone, a longtime political operative and adviser to President Trump before the 2016 election, and Wikileaks.
Assange only took the data and published the same, BFD. The USA is still pissed at Assange for the Iraq publications (all true, btw) and that little queer that sent the information to wikileaks.
