Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, "has been charged," according to an unrelated court filing that inadvertently mentioned his name, reports said.
The New York Times reported that the filing was first spotted late Thursday. The reports did not indicate what charges Assange will face.
The Washington Post, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that the disclosure about Assange being charged is true, but it was unintentional.
Fox News emailed the Department of Justice early Friday for comment and did not immediately get a response.
A spokesman from the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Virginia told the Post that the court filing "was made in error. That was not the intended name for this filing."
The filing in which Assange is named is part of an unrelated case involving a 29-year-old man accused of enticing a 15-year-old girl, Reuters reported.
Assange faces a variety of potential charges, including the Espionage Act, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier.
Assange has been seeking asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012 when British courts ordered him extradited to Sweden to face questioning in a sexual assault case. That matter has since been dropped, but WikiLeaks supporters have claimed that Assange fears being extradited to the United States if he leaves the embassy.
The Times reported Thursday that the filing was first brought to light by Seamus Hughes, a terrorism expert from George Washington University, who posted the highlighted item on Twitter.
It read, “Another procedure short of sealing will not adequately protect the needs of law enforcement at this time because, due to the sophistication of the defendant and the publicity surrounding the case, no other procedure is likely to keep confidential the fact that Assange has been charged.”
Prosecutors wanted to keep quiet on the charges in order to avoid an attempt by Assange to evade arrest, according to Reuters.
The Post reported that the disclosure came in a filing from Assistant U.S. Attorney Kellen S. Dwyer. He is reportedly also assigned to the Assange case.
In a series of tweets on Thursday, WikiLeaks called it an “apparent cut-and-paste error” and that the website, which shares confidential government documents, “has never been contacted by anyone from his [Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s] office.”
Barry Pollack, a lawyer who represents Assange, told the Journal that he hadn’t been made aware of any developments and condemned the notion of prosecuting him.
“We have heard nothing from authorities suggesting that a criminal case against Mr. Assange is imminent,” Pollack said. “Prosecuting someone for publishing truthful information would set a terrible and dangerous precedent.”
The filing comes as Mueller is reportedly looking into Roger Stone, an informal advisor to then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, and whether Stone had an inside track and prior knowledge of WikiLeaks plans to release the hacked emails from the Democratic National Convention and then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to a New York Times report.
NBC News on Wednesday revealed text messages obtained from Stone that he claims vindicates him and his friend, radio host Randy Credico.
Credico denied having any insight into Assange’s plans, telling NBC "there's absolutely nothing there that I had any knowledge of anything that Assange was going to do because I didn't."