The U.S. government is dramatically ratcheting up its rhetoric against whistleblowing news collective Wikileaks, announcing on Thursday that authorities are preparing new charges on which to arrest the group’s founder, Julian Assange. Assange has lived at the Ecuadorian embassy in London for the last four years in order to avoid extradition and arrest. Now, in the wake of Wikileaks’ controversial Vault 7 releases, which exposed thousands of documents detailing the CIA’s use of domestic and international cyberhacking tools, it appears the government is out for blood.
The Justice Department has sought charges against Assange for almost decade, since Wikileaks facilitated the release of files stolen by whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning. Tension between Wikileaks and U.S. intelligence agencies was further eroded during and after the 2016 presidential election, when U.S. authorities — citing no evidence — asserted Wikileaks had colluded with Russia to affect the outcome.
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