Report: WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Under Pressure to Resign

(Sept. 7) -- Embattled WikiLeaks boss Julian Assange is facing an insurrection within his own organization after a prominent supporter called on him to step down as the site's point man.

WikiLeaks organizer Birgitta Jonsdottir -- an Icelandic parliamentarian -- told The Daily Beast that Assange should give up his management role while he fights rape and molestation allegations filed by two Swedish women. "I am not angry with Julian, but this is a situation that has clearly gotten out of hand," she told the news site. "These personal matters should have nothing to do with WikiLeaks. I have strongly urged him to focus on the legalities that he's dealing with and let some other people carry the torch."

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange attends a seminar at the Swedish Trade Union Confederation headquarters in Stockholm,on Aug. 14.

Bertil Ericson, AFP / Getty Images

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, shown here at a seminar in Stockholm on Aug. 14, has begun to face calls for him to step down from the organization while he faces rape and molestation charges in Sweden.

Jonsdottir added that she didn't support Assange's claim that the allegations were part of a U.S. conspiracy designed to damage WikiLeaks, and said they may be the result of a cultural misunderstanding between the women and the hacker. "Julian is brilliant in many ways, but he doesn't have very good social skills," she said. "And he's a classic Aussie in the sense that he's a bit of a male chauvinist."

Assange has denied the rape and molestation allegations, saying Thursday they were "baseless and disturbing" and that he was "losing confidence in the Swedish justice system."

Read more at The Daily Beast.