Security News > 2020 > June > US govt: Julian Assange tried to recruit hacker to steal hush-hush dirt and we should know – the hacker was an informant

Prosecutors in the US have upgraded their case against Julian Assange with a second superseding indictment claiming he sought out the services of a notorious hacker who, unbeknownst to the WikiLeaks boss, was secretly working with the Feds.

The latest filing does not add any charges, though it includes evidence of Assange asking hackers to steal sensitive and scandalous dirt from government systems for WikiLeaks to disseminate.

In the filing [PDF], it is said Assange worked directly with Anonymous and LulzSec miscreants in a quest to obtain US government documents and publish them on WikiLeaks.

It is claimed Assange asked both LulzSec hacker Jeremy Hammond and Sabu to help him obtain a number of sensitive documents belonging to various three-letter agencies in Washington DC. The indictment states at one point Hammond and Sabu worried they would not be able to meet the expectations of Assange to exfiltrate and provide material for publication.

"To focus the hacking efforts of the hackers associated with Sabu, Assange told Sabu that the most impactful release of hacked materials would be from the CIA, NSA, or the New York Times," the indictment reads.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2020/06/25/assange_wikileaks_sabu/