Julian Assange and Wikileaks

Wiki Leaks founder Julian Assange has been charged in the United States, the organization said, in a development that could have implications for Robert Mueller's probe into alleged Russian meddling in the US presidential election.

Prosecutors inadvertently disclosed the existence of a sealed indictment in a court filing in an unrelated case, Wiki Leaks said Thursday.

The exact nature of the charges against Assange was not immediately known.

"SCOOP: US Department of Justice 'accidentally' reveals existence of sealed charges (or a draft for them) against Wiki Leaks' publisher Julian Assange in apparent cut-and-paste error in an unrelated case also at the Eastern District of Virginia," Wikileaks wrote on Twitter.

The still-unsealed charges against Assange were revealed by Assistant US Attorney Kellen Dwyer as he made a filing in the unrelated case and urged a judge to keep that filing sealed.

Dwyer wrote: "Due to the sophistication of the defendant and the publicity surrounding the case, no other procedure is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged," according to The Washington Post.

The charges would "need to remain sealed until Assange is arrested," Dwyer wrote.

Federal prosecutors have been investigating Assange over Wiki Leaks' 2010 publication of a trove of US diplomatic cables that proved an acute embarrassment to Washington.

But the charging of Assange in the US could have implications for special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into whether Donald Trump's election campaign team colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential vote, and whether Trump tried to obstruct the probe into that.

In July, Mueller charged 12 Russian spies with conspiring to hack Democratic National Committee computers, stealing data from the organization and publishing those files in an effort to sway the election.

One of the indictments referred to Wiki Leaks, described as "Organization 1," as the platform the Russians used to release the stolen emails.

- 'Made in error' -

US media were alerted late Thursday to the inadvertent disclosure, thanks to a tweet from Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. He is known to follow court filings closely.

"The court filing was made in error," said Joshua Stueve, a spokesman for the US Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Virginia, US media reported. "That was not the intended name for this filing."

The 47-year-old Assange has been holed up at Ecuador's embassy in London since 2012, where he took refuge over fears of being extradited to the US over the 2010 Wiki Leaks cable dump.

He was originally wanted in London after a British judge ruled he should be extradited to face allegations of sexual assault in Sweden.

The Swedish case has since been dropped, but Britain still wants him to face justice over breaching his bail conditions following his arrest on the sexual assault allegations.

Barry J. Pollack, one of Assange’s attorneys, said, "The only thing more irresponsible than charging a person for publishing truthful information would be to put in a public filing information that clearly was not intended for the public and without any notice to Mr. Assange," the Post said.

Pollack said he did not know if Assange has been charged.

A US judge refused Wednesday to unseal charges that the government is believed to have prepared against Wiki Leaks founder Julian Assange.

Judge Leonie Brinkema of the federal court in Alexandria, Virginia said that the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which petitioned for the unsealing order, had not proven the Assange case existed — despite it having been referenced in court documents from another case.

Assange, who has stayed under diplomatic protection in the Ecuadoran embassy in London since August 2012, says the United States plans to indict him over Wiki Leaks' publishing classified materials.

Assange says Washington wants him arrested and extradited if he steps foot outside the embassy.

He hopes that, by unsealing the charges, he may be able to protect himself from arrest in Britain.

US Justice Department authorities have refused for more than two years to acknowledge that they have investigated and prepared charges against the anti-secrecy advocate.

But in November, a document in a separate case that was inadvertently unsealed made two references to an "Assange" case.

Assange said the document demonstrated that he does face charges and demanded they be revealed; the Reporters Committee then filed a motion to have them unsealed.

But Brinkema said the existence of the case was not "sufficiently certain," so the government could not be asked to reveal documents it might have, noting that investigations often must remain secret until they are completed and a suspect can be arrested.

"To hold otherwise would mean that any member of the public or press — by demanding access to judicial records based on little more than speculation — could effectively force the government to admit or deny that charges had been filed."

The New York Times reported in November that it confirmed charges had indeed been drawn up against Assange, who maintains his publishing activities are protected like those of journalists.

It remains unclear what the charges specifically allege.

Assange originally fell afoul of US authorities after Wiki Leaks published classified Pentagon and State Department documents in 2010.

During the 2016 US presidential race, the website created a huge stir when it published emails and documents from the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton that US officials say were hacked by Russian intelligence and transferred to Assange.

Last week, Assange asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to order President Donald Trump's administration to unseal charges against him.

A lot of comments mention that the show is a stooge of Trump. LOL.