The Justice Department is getting ready to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and expects the U.S. government will be able to get him stateside for trial, according to a report published Thursday evening.
Assange, who is not a U.S. citizen, has been living in Ecuador’s London embassy for six years since he was granted political asylum.
U.S. prosecutors have discussed over the past year the types of charges they could bring against Assange, according to the Wall Street Journal.
One of special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictments as a result of the investigation into President Trump’s campaign’s relationship with Russia revealed that the Kremlin used Assange’s organization to gather intelligence and use it in the 2016 election.
Assange, 47, could be first indicted by Justice prosecutors, which would give Ecuador a reason to hand him over.
Sources with knowledge of the legal developments told WSJ that Assange may face charges related to the Espionage Act, which prohibits the sharing of information related to national security.
Assange’s fate took a turn after Ecuadorians elected President Lenin Moreno last year. Moreno is no supporter of Assange. He has called him a a “stone in our shoe” and said he did not know how much longer the South American country could let him stick around its British embassy.
This is not the former computer programmer’s first run-in with U.S. authorities. In 2010, he leaked classified documents Army soldier Chelsea Manning provided him.
