Relations between WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange and the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, which housed him, deteriorated over the past few months. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin acolytes began to warn that any American indictment of Assange would provide future precedent for the government to go after legitimate news organizations for publishing classified information.

Just hours after U.K. police arrested Assange, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Virginia announced that Assange faces a federal charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, related to Chelsea Manning’s diplomatic cables leak, not the 2016 DNC leaks.