US President Donald Trump says that if the Justice Department wants to charge WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, "it's OK with me."
Trump says he is not involved in that decision-making process, but would support Attorney General Jeff Sessions if he charged Assange with a crime.
The administration has stepped up its rhetoric against WikiLeaks in recent days, despite the fact that Trump welcomed the group's release of a top Hillary Clinton aide's emails during the election.
Sessions told reporters on Thursday that Assange's arrest is a priority as the Justice Department steps up efforts to prosecute people who leak classified information to the media.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo last week denounced WikiLeaks as a "hostile intelligence service" and a threat to US national security.
Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden on a rape allegation and extradition to the US for questioning over WikiLeaks' releases of top secret government documents.
Watch: Dateline speaks to Assange
