If I'm improperly accused of sexual assault (totally innocent) I'll hear that case out instead of hiding in my man cave at a foreign embassy while still making contact with questionable foreign intelligence figures.
You'd only do that if you were stupid enough to not already understand that the accusation was setup, with a little US pressure into an anyways willing subordinate government (Sweden), to get you to a circus trial and then extradition.
Fortunately Assange was not that naive.