Accusing the Ecuadorian government of spying on him in their own embassy may have been the last mistake Julian Assange will ever make.
The WikiLeaks founder was arrested and removed from the Ecuadorian embassy by British police this morning who wanted him for violating a bail agreement. Assange was also charged by American prosecutors.
From the New York Times:
The single charge, conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, was filed a year earlier, in March 2018, and stems from what prosecutors said was his agreement to break a password to a classified United States government computer. It carries a penalty of up to five years in prison and is significant in that it is not an espionage charge, a detail that will come as a relief to press freedom advocates. The United States government had considered until at least last year charging him with an espionage-related offense.
It seems unlikely that violating the terms of his release and this one single charge filed by American prosecutors will be the only legal jeopardy that Assange faces. It's possible that a long list of individuals and even states may consider making civil claims against Assange.
The number of people libeled and defamed by WikiLeaks over the last decade while Assange sat comfortably in the Ecuadorian embassy is a mile long.
Ecuadorian authorities didn't merely kick Assange out of the front door; they reportedly invited British police into the embassy to arrest him.