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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA Alexandria Division UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (UNDER SEAL) v Criminal No. 1:18er ] // JULIAN PAUL ASSANGE, Count 1: Conspiracy to Commit Computer Intrusion (18 U.S.C. §§ 371, 1030(@)(1), 1030(@)2), 1030(6)(2)(B)G8)) Defendant. ‘March 2018 Term — at Alexandria, Virginia INDICTMENT ‘THE GRAND JURY CHARGES THAT: (GENERAL ALLEGATIONS At times material to this Indiotment: 1. Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning, was an intelligence analyst in the United States Army, who was deployed to Forward Operating Base Hammer in Iraq. 2. Manning held a “Top Secret” security clearance, and signed a classified information nondisclostire agreement, acknowledging that the unauthorized disclosure or retention or negligent handling of classified information could cause irreparable injury to the United States or be used to the advantage of a foreign nation. 3. ‘Executive Order No. 13526 and its predecessor orders define the classification levels assigned to classified information. ‘Under the Executive Order, information may be classified as “Secret” if its unauthorized disclosure reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage to the national security. Further, under the Executive Order, classified information can ‘generally only be disclosed to those persons who have been granted an appropriate level of United States government security clearance and possess @ need to know the classified information in connection to their official duties. 4, Julian Paul Assange was the founder and leader of the WikiLeaks website. The WikiLeaks website publicly solicited submissions of classified, censored, and other restricted information. 5S. Assange, who did not possess a security clearance or need to know, was not authorized to receive classified information of the United States. 6. Between in or around January 2010 and May 2010, Manning downloaded four, nearly complete databases from departments and agencies of the United States. These databases contained approximately 90,000 Afghanistan war-related significant activity reports, 400,000 Iraq war-related significant activities reports, 800 Guantanamo Bay detainee assessment briefs, and 250,000 U.S. Department of State cables, Many of these records were classified pursuant to Executive Order No. 13526 or its predecessor orders. Manning provided the records to agents of Wikileaks so that WikiLeaks could publicly disclose them on its website, WikiLeaks publicly released the vast majority of the classified records on its website in 2010 and 2011. 7. On or about March 8, 2010, Assange agreed to assist Manning in cracking a password stored on United States Department of Defense computers connected to the Secret Internet Protocol Network, a United States government network used for classified documents and communications, as designated according to Executive Order No. 13526 or its predecessor orders. 8. Manning, who had access to the computers in connection with her duties as an intelligence analyst, was also using the computers to download classified records to transmit to ‘Wikileaks. Army regulations prohibited Manning from attempting to bypass or circumvent security mechanisms on Government-provided information systems and from sharing personal accounts and authenticators, such as passwords. 9. The portion of the password Manning gave to Assange to crack was stored as a “hash value” in a computer file that was accessible only by users with administrative-level privileges. Manning did not have administrative-level privileges, and used special software, namely a Linux operating system, to access the computer file and obtain the portion of the password provided to Assange. 10, Cracking the password would have allowed Manning to log onto the computers ‘under a username that did not belong to her. Such a measure would have made it more difficult for investigators to identify Manning as the source of disclosures of classified information. 11. Prior to the formation of the password-cracking agreement, Manning had already provided WikiLeaks with hundreds of thousands of classified records that she downloaded from departments and agencies of the United States, including the Afghanistan war-related significant activity reports and Iraq war-related significant acti ies reports. 12, At the time he entered into this agreement, Assange knew that Manning was providing WikiLeaks with classified records containing national defense information of the United States. Assange was knowingly receiving such classified records from Manning for the purpose of publicly disclosing them on the WikiLeaks website. 13. For example, on March 7, 2010, Manning and Assange discussed the value of the Guantanamo Bay detainee assessment brief, and on March 8, 2010, before entering the password cracking-agreement, Manning told Assange that she was “throwing everything [she had] on JTF GTMO at [Assenge] now.” Manning also said “after this upload, that’s all I really have got left”