Shortly after Julian Assange was arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London on Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice revealed a grand jury indictment against the WikiLeaks founder.
The indictment charges Assange with conspiring to hack government computers.
The indictment alleges that Assange conspired with Chelsea Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst, to assist with cracking a password for Defense Department computers that housed government secrets. Assange is charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison if he is convicted.
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Manning leaked huge troves of government secrets to WikiLeaks in 2010. Prosecutors on Thursday called it the largest compromise of classified information in US history.
A federal grand jury in Virginia delivered the seven-page indictment in March 2018, but prosecutors kept it secret until Thursday. The indictment includes details of messages exchanged between Manning and Assange.
(usatoday)
