Julian Assange submission, the United States confirmed its "sensitive, ongoing law enforcement proceeding into the Wikileaks matter." On 13 April 2017, CIA Director Mike Pompeo called WikiLeaks "a non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia." On 20 April 2017, US officials told CNN that they were preparing to file formal charges against Assange. United States prosecutors accidentally revealed the existence of criminal charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in an unrelated ongoing sex crime case in the Eastern District of Virginia. Assange visited Sweden in August 2010. During his visit, he became the subject of sexual assault allegations
Julian Assange Assange made the decision to seek asylum because he felt abandoned by the Australian government. The Australian Attorney-General at the time Nicola Roxon had written a letter to Assange’s legal representative Jennifer Robinson in which she wrote that Australia would not seek to involve itself in any international exchanges about Assange’s future. She also wrote that "should Mr Assange be convicted of any offence in the United States and a sentence of imprisonment imposed, he may apply for an international prisoner transfer to Australia". Assange’s lawyers described the letter as a "declaration of abandonment". Assange and his supporters state he