He has been holed up courtesy of the Ecuadorian government in London for nearly seven years, but this morning, police entered the embassy of Ecuador and dragged Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to a waiting van. Video from The Guardian (above) shows he appeared to be resisting arrest. From The Washington Post:
“Ecuador, which took Assange in when he was facing a Swedish rape investigation in 2012, said it was rescinding asylum because he of his “discourteous and aggressive behavior” and for violating the terms of his asylum.”
The London Metropolitan Police issued a statement saying Assange has been arrested at the Ecuadorian Embassy on “behalf of United States authorities.”
British authorities now confirm Assange was arrested on US extradition warrant. https://t.co/Jx6so7A53L
— Evan Pérez (@evanperez) April 11, 2019
Assange is wanted in the United States on suspicion of espionage for working with Russia to publish documents with sensitive government information. From The Post:
“Ahead of the U.S. election in 2016, WikiLeaks released tens of thousands of emails that had been stolen from the Democratic National Committee and from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, in cyber-hacks that U.S. intelligence officials concluded were orchestrated by the Russian government.”
This is ten steps ahead, but it's hard to imagine Assange doesn't have information relevant to the Russia investigation. Whether he would ever flip is another matter. Also reasonable to believe Mueller would have waited if he thought Assange could have changed his conclusions.
— Ken Dilanian (@KenDilanianNBC) April 11, 2019
The New York Times reports:
“A U.S. federal court unsealed an indictment Thursday against Assange charging him with a single count of conspiracy to disclose classified information that could be used to injure the United States.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
