U.S. may have prepared charges against Assange

WASHINGTON—The Justice Department inadvertently named Julian Assange in a court filing in an unrelated case, suggesting prosecutors have prepared charges against the WikiLeaks founder under seal.

Assange’s name appears twice in a recently unsealed August court filing from a federal prosecutor in Virginia who was attempting to keep sealed a separate case involving a man accused of coercing a minor for sex.

Any charges against Assange could help illuminate whether Russia co-ordinated with the Trump campaign to sway the

2016 presidential election. It would also suggest that, after years of internal wrangling within the Justice Department, prosecutors have decided to take a more aggressive tact against the secret-sharing website. It was not immediately clear why Assange’s name was included in the document, though Joshua Stueve, spokesperson for the Eastern District of Virginia, — which had been investigating Assange — said, “The court filing was made in error. That was not the intended name for this filing.”