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Justice Dept. Considers Charges Against Wikileaks, Julian Assange

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- The Justice Department is considering charges against Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange.

The CIA said Wikileaks and Assange are a major security threat, despite President Donald Trump praising them during his run for the White House.

Wikileaks has published classified information including nearly three-quarters of a million sensitive documents from Chelsea Manning.

Last year, the organization came under fire for publishing thousands of emails from the campaign of democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

The Justice Department inquiry comes as the CIA and the FBI are looking for an insider, either a CIA employee or contractor who exposed top-secret government documents and hacking tools.

Sources familiar with the investigation say it was someone who had physical access to the material.

Assange is living at an Ecuadorian embassy safe house in London.

It is still early in this process and several officials told CBS News that charges against any one person or Wikileaks itself have not been finalized.

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