Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been secretly indicted by the Trump administration's Justice Department, "a drastic escalation" of the feds' efforts against him, the New York Times reported. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has denounced Wikileaks as a "non-state hostile intelligence service" and labeled Assange a "fraud," "coward," and "enemy." But rather than a federal indictment, Assange deserves a tweaked version of one of Washington's hottest honorifics.

Wikileaks has been in the federal crosshairs since it released scores of thousands of documents exposing lies and atrocities regarding the Afghan and Iraq wars, thanks to leaks from Army corporal Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Wikileaks released emails from the Democratic National Committee showing that its nominating process was rigged to favor Hillary Clinton. During the final month of the campaign, Wikileaks disclosed emails from Clinton campaign chief John Podesta.

In the final month of the presidential campaign, Donald Trump declared, "I love WikiLeaks" and mentioned it more than a hundred times. However, since Trump took office, he is following Washington protocols and viewing whistleblowers as public enemies.