The charges stem from one of the largest publications of classified information in American history, occurring during Barack Obama’s first presidential term.
One of WikiLeaks’s core security concepts was that it did not know the identities of its sources. According to a New York Times article, the U.S. government has been trying to prove since 2010 that Assange was not merely a passive recipient of materials from Chelsea Manning.
The charges allege that Assange encouraged or helped Manning to extract the files. Despite this, no files or communications on Manning’s computer indicated a conspiracy, and Manning has always maintained that she had anonymous communications with someone at WikiLeaks but could not confirm it was Assange.
Assange also published hacked emails sent to WikiLeaks from the Democratic National Committee and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private server system
Clinton’s team destroyed thousands of government emails from this unsanctioned system, some of which were later identified as classified. The source of the leak has never been publicly determined.
Chelsea Manning’s Role
The government claims that Assange conspired with Chelsea Manning, a military intelligence analyst previously known as Bradley Edward Manning.
