A new battle has broken out over who gets access to Julian Assange's computer in the aftermath of the journalist's arrest. Wikileaks says Assange took the time to scrub his computer before he was taken into custody, meaning anything found on it would be "false evidence" and planted by the United States government.

At the request of the U.S. government, Ecuadorian authorities took possession of all of Assange's possession after his arrest. Wikileaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson told The Associated Press that because Assange cleared the computers, any information found on them will be put there by the U.S. or Ecuadorian authorities. "If anything surfaces, I can assure you it would've been planted," he said.

The U.S. is attempting to extradite Assange on charges of "computer hacking" and Sweden has also re-opened its investigation into rape claims against Assange first made in 2010. This means British authorities may have to decide whether to prioritize the US or Swedish claims first. After Assange serves his 50 weeks in a British jail for"breaching bail conditions."