This is a replacement tweet on the possibility Assange was charged under seal. The federal filing that seems to say so is *not* in an Assange case, but *is* in the EDVA, so the speculation is that it's a cut-and-paste slip that *could*—but only *could*—indicate an Assange charge.
2/ Having written hundreds of court filings in my life, I'll say that "cut-and-paste" *does* happen a lot, as you're often filing identical *types* of filings, so you take from past templates. Which would *suggest* that EDVA had another document which referenced charging Assange.
3/ The second most likely possibility—it feels remote—is another person with the same last name happened to be in the template being cribbed from; the third most likely possibility—almost remote—is that someone was f*cking around with the doc for fun and a proofreading missed it.
4/ So if someone were to say that this EDVA slip-up could indicate that Assange has already been charged under seal, I'd have to say that, based on my experience...well, that's very plausible. But because the filing wasn't about Assange per se, we must still be very careful here.
SOURCE/ Here's the original tweet from the gentleman who caught the Assange reference in an EDVA (Eastern District of Virginia) filing in federal court:
