WASHINGTON (AP)  The Obama administration on Monday accused WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of making “wild assertions” about U.S. persecution to deflect attention from sex allegations he faces questioning for in Sweden.

The State Department said Assange’s case has nothing to do with the United States or WikiLeaks publication of secret U.S. documents and is solely a matter for Britain, where he is now holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy, as well as Sweden and Ecuador.