WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is throwing a monkey wrench into the Obama administration’s “Russia hacked the election” narrative. Appearing on Fox News in an interview that will air in full Tuesday night, the controversial figure set the record straight on his organization’s source for the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta emails: it was NOT the Russian government.
Host Sean Hannity pressed Assange on his insistence that Russia was not in fact behind the politically damaging leaks: “Can you say to the American people, unequivocally, that you did not get this information about the DNC, John Podesta’s emails, can you tell the American people 1,000 percent that you did not get it from Russia or anybody associated with Russia?” asked Hannity.
“Yes,” Assange replied. “We can say, we have said, repeatedly that over the last two months that our source is not the Russian government and it is not a state party.”
“Our source is not a state party, so the answer for our interactions is no,” Assange added later. “But if we look at our most recent statement from the US government, which is on the 29th of December, OK, we had five different branches of government, Treasury, DHS, FBI, White House presenting their accusations to underpin Obama’s throwing out 29 Russian diplomats. What was missing from all of those statements? The word WikiLeaks. It’s very strange.”
Assange went on to make clear that he viewed the Obama administration’s actions in much the same light as Team Trump, contending that it was all an attempt to “deligitimize the Trump admninistation.”
“Our publications had wide uptake by the American people, they’re all true,” he said. “But that’s not the allegation that’s being presented by the Obama White House. So, why such a dramatic response? Well, the reason is obvious. They’re trying to delegitimize the Trump administration as it goes into the White House. They are trying to say that President-elect Trump is not a legitimate President…”
Watch:
Partial transcript, video via RealClearPolitics.