In the indictment unsealed on Thursday morning, federal prosecutors charged that Assange 'was not authorized to receive classified information of the United States.'
The indictment says Assange 'agreed to assist Manning' around March 8, 2010 in cracking the password, as Manning was downloading materials to send to Wikileaks.
The indictment of Assange includes quotes from exchanges between Manning and the Wikileaks founder, using the “Jabber” online chat service.
The indictment was dated March 6, 2018.
The indictment does not charge Assange with any crimes for releasing the documents provided by Manning - only in the effort to hack into U.S. military computers to access more information.
In Congress, lawmakers in both parties called for a quick extradition of Assange to the United States.
Whatever Julian Assange's intentions were for WikiLeaks, what he’s become is a direct participant in Russian efforts to weaken the West and undermine American security. I hope British courts will quickly transfer him to U.S. custody so he can finally get the justice he deserves.
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) April 11, 2019
“While President Trump may ‘love Wikileaks’ for flooding the airwaves with information stolen by the Russian government, Mr. Assange is in fact a tool of Vladimir Putin and the Russian intelligence service,” said Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY).
“Under the guise of transparency, Julian Assange and Wikileaks have effectively acted as an arm of the Russian intelligence services for years,” said Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
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