The Independent View: U.S. Prepares Charges to Arrest WikiLeaks Assange

U.S. Authorities have prepared Charges to seek the Arrest of WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange.

The Justice Department Investigation of Assange and WikiLeaks dates to at least 2010, when the site first gained wide attention for posting thousands of files stolen by the former U.S. Army Intelligence Analyst now known as Chelsea Manning.

Prosecutors have struggled with whether the First Amendment precluded the Prosecution of Assange, but now believe they have found a way to move forward.

During President Obama's Administration, Attorney General Eric Holder and officials at the Justice Department determined it would be difficult to bring Charges against Assange because WikiLeaks wasn't alone in publishing Documents stolen by Manning.

The Investigation continued, but any possible Charges were put on hold, according to U.S. officials involved in the process then.

The U.S. view of WikiLeaks and Assange began to change after Investigators found what they believe was proof that WikiLeaks played an active role in helping Edward Snowden, a former NSA Analyst, disclose a massive cache of classified documents.

Assange remains holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, seeking to avoid an Arrest Warrant on Rape allegations in Sweden.

Last week in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, CIA Director Mike Pompeo went further than any U.S. Government official in describing a role by WikiLeaks that went beyond First Amendment activity. He said WikiLeaks "directed Chelsea Manning to intercept specific secret information, and it overwhelmingly focuses on the United States."

"It's time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is: A non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia," Pompeo said.

U.S. Intelligence Agencies have also determined that Russian Intelligence used WikiLeaks to publish emails aimed at undermining the Campaign of Clinton, as part of a broader operation to meddle in the U.S. 2016 Presidential Election. Hackers working for Russian Intelligence Agencies stole thousands of emails from the Democratic National Committee and officials in the Clinton Campaign and used intermediaries to pass along the Documents to WikiLeaks, according to a public assessment by U.S. Intelligence Agencies.

Still, the move could be viewed as Political, since Assange is untouchable as long as he remains in the Ecuadorian Embassy, and Ecuador has not changed its stance on Assange's Extradition.