Julian Assange is hit with 17 new charges for conspiring with Chelsea Manning 

Julian Assange has been charged in the US with 17 violations of the Espionage Act for conspiring with Chelsea Manning. 

A federal grand jury returned the indictment against him in Virginia on Thursday afternoon. Now, the 47-year-old WikiLeaks founder faces 170 years behind bars. 

Seventeen of the 18 charges are violations of the Espionage Act. 

They are; one count of conspiracy to receive national defense information, eight counts of obtaining national defense information, eight counts of disclosure of national defense information. 

The 18th charge is conspiracy to commit computer intrusion which he was hit with in April.  

It's the first time in history that anyone operating in a journalistic capacity has been charged under the Espionage Act and raises concerns about First Amendment limits and protections for publishing classified information.

WikiLeaks on Twitter called Assange's prosecution 'the end of national security journalism and the First Amendment'.

WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson said in a tweet: 'I find no satisfaction in saying "I told you so" to those who for 9 years have scorned us for warning this moment would come.

'I care for journalism. If you share my feeling you take a stand NOW. Either you are a worthless coward or you defend Assange, WikiLeaks and Journalism.'

The US has until June 11 to submit its case to the UK for it to extradite Assange. 

Then, the process could take months or even years. Sweden is also appealing for him to return there to face sexual assault allegations. 

After announcing the charges on Thursday, John Demers, the head of the Justice Department's National Security Division, told reporters: 'Assange is no journalist'. 

Assange is in London, fighting extradition to the US, after being expelled from the Ecuadorian embassy. 

He is completing a 50 week jail sentence in the UK for violating bail conditions for his Swedish sexual assault arrest. 

Assange fled to London, taking asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy, in 2012. 

Together, US prosecutors say he revealed the names of intelligence sources in Afghanistan, China, Iran, Iraq and Syria among other breaches by uploading a haul of information to WikiLeaks that Manning had access to. 

In its announcement on Thursday, the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said: 'In late 2009, Assange and WikiLeaks actively solicited United States classified information, including by publishing a list of "Most Wanted Leaks" that sought, among other things, classified documents.

'Manning responded to Assange's solicitations by using access granted to her as an intelligence analyst to search for United States classified documents, and provided to Assange and WikiLeaks databases containing 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 US Department of State cables'.

Last month, Manning was put behind bars for contempt of court for not agreeing to testify against Assange before a grand jury. 

She refused, saying she did not believe in the secrecy of the process.  

She was released but was sent back again after saying she would rather 'starve' than testify against him.

In April, Assange was dramatically dragged from the Ecuadorian embassy in Knightsbridge, central London, some seven years after he sought political asylum after the documents were published.

He is currently fighting against extradition to the US.

US authorities allege the whistleblower conspired with Manning, 31, 'with reason to believe that the information was to be used to the injury of the United States or the advantage of a foreign nation'.

Assange published the documents on WikiLeaks with unredacted names of sources who gave information to US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

'These human sources included local Afghans and Iraqis, journalists, religious leaders, human rights advocates, and political dissidents from repressive regimes,' the Justice Department said.

'According to the superseding indictment, Assange's actions risked serious harm to United States national security to the benefit of our adversaries and put the unredacted named human sources at a grave and imminent risk of serious physical harm and/or arbitrary detention.'

It added: 'Many of these documents were classified at the Secret level, meaning that their unauthorized disclosure could cause serious damage to United States national security.'

Classified rules of engagement files for the Iraq war were also handed over by Manning, US officials said, and Assange is said to have agreed to hack into secure government networks.

The Justice Department said: 'Assange actively encouraged Manning to provide more information and agreed to crack a password hash stored on US Department of Defence computers connected to the Secret Internet Protocol Network (SIPRNet), a United States government network used for classified documents and communications.

'Assange is also charged with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to crack that password hash.'

He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for each count except conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, which is punishable by five years.

Following Assange's April arrest, President Donald Trump claimed to know 'nothing about WikiLeaks.

He said that he doesn't know very much about Assange, and it's the US Department of Justice that is handling the international case.

'I know nothing about WikiLeaks. It's not my thing. And I know there is something having to do with Julian Assange. I've been seeing what's happened with Assange,' he said in the Oval Office

read more from dailymail.....