The Department of Justice outlined new evidence Wednesday to bolster its case against Julian Assange, in an updated indictment that accuses the WikiLeaks founder of soliciting hackers to break into the Icelandic government’s computers to steal information that could be leaked to embarrass the government.

FBI agents and prosecutors in Manhattan were close to making a criminal hacking case against WikiLeaks based on these allegations in 2011 but were blocked by senior officials, who wanted to focus on an espionage case against Assange in Virginia, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about an investigation.