Julian Assange indicted on computer hacking charges

Julian Assange has been indicted on charges that he conspired with Chelsea Manning to hack into a classified government computer, the US Department of Justice announced Thursday.

The court documents were unsealed as the WikiLeaks founder was hauled out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London after his political asylum was revoked.

“The charge relates to Assange’s alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the United States,” the Justice Department said in a press release.

Assange is accused of trying to help Manning, a former US Army intelligence analyst, to crack a password to infiltrate Pentagon computers while she was leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks.

In one exchange, Manning told Assange that “after this upload, that’s all I really have got left.” To which Assange replied, “curious eyes never run dry in my experience,” according to court papers.

Assange, a computer programmer, is charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. He faces up to five years.

The 47-year-old, who has been holed up in the embassy for the past seven years, was taken into custody by UK police in connection with a US extradition request and for breaching UK bail conditions in 2012.

He appeared in Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, giving the packed gallery a thumbs-up.

In a quick verdict, Judge Michael Snow found Assange guilty of skipping bail in 2012 by entering the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden in a rape investigation. He now faces up to 12 months behind bars for the conviction in the UK.

The defense argued that he couldn’t expect a fair trial in Britain because the UK’s sole purpose was to “secure his delivery” to the US.

With Post wires