Susan Benn of the Julian Assange defense fund has said the United States had empaneled a grand jury in its goal to press charges against Assange. Turning himself in to British authorities would start a process that would end with Assange being extradited to the United States, she said.

WikiLeaks, which facilitates the anonymous leaking of secret information, has published about 250,000 confidential U.S. diplomatic cables, causing embarrassment to the government and others. It also has published hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. documents relating to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Assange sought refuge at the embassy five days after the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom dismissed a bid to reopen his appeal of the decision to send him to Sweden, his last option in British courts.

British officials have met with Ecuadorian authorities, but no information has been released about those meetings.