Washington—Representative Eliot L. Engel, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, today made the following statement:

“Julian Assange’s eviction from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and his arrest by British authorities are welcome developments. While President Trump may ‘love Wikileaks’ for flooding the airwaves with information stolen by the Russian government, Mr. Assange is in fact a tool of Vladimir Putin and the Russian intelligence service. He has time after time compromised the national security of the United States and our allies by publicly releasing classified government documents and confidential materials related to our 2016 presidential election. Today this dark chapter hopefully begins to near its end.

“I thank Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno for taking this crucial step. Former President Rafael Correa’s initial decision to grant Mr. Assange safe harbor created this irritant in our relationship with Ecuador. I look forward to working closely with President Moreno to further deepen U.S.-Ecuador relations.

“And I anxiously await Mr. Assange’s extradition to the United States so that he can finally face justice.”

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