US justice department files 17 new charges against Julian Assange

17 new charges have been filed against the Wikileaks co-founder.

In April of this year, Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange was arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

News emerged on Thursday night (23 May) that a number of new charges had been filed against the Australian. According to BBC, the latest charges accuse him of receiving and unlawfully publishing the names of classified sources. The new indictment says that Assange conspired with activist and whistleblower Chelsea Manning in order to obtain and disclose secret United States files, and is also said to have exposed and endangered confidential sources in the Middle East and China. This news signals a dramatic escalation under US President Donald Trump to crack down on those who try to solicit and publish classified government information. Assange is currently serving a jail sentence in the UK for breaching bail conditions. At the time of his original arrest, he had been in the Ecuadorian embassy for seven years to avoid extradition to Sweden over a sexual assault case