The Department of Justice is preparing to prosecute Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and hope to try him in a U.S. courtroom, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.
Prosecutors have reportedly been discussing different charges to level against Assange and how to bring him back to the U.S. Ecuador granted him asylum in 2012 and he has been living in that country’s London embassy ever since.
However, President Lenin Moren, who was elected Ecuadorean president last year, has reportedly soured on Assange.
Assange fled Sweden in 2012 over allegations of sexual assault and rape. Though prosecutors dropped the case last year, he still faces arrest for breaching bail conditions should he leave the embassy.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in April 2017 that the arrest of Assange would become a priority for the Justice Department.
U.S. intelligence agencies believe that WikiLeaks coordinated with Russian hackers to release emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 presidential campaign. Special counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly investigating connections between WikiLeaks and Roger Stone, a longtime adviser to Donald Trump before he became president.
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