In an interview that aired on Tuesday evening, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange emphatically denied that the Russian government was the source for the leaked Democratic National Committee and John Podesta emails. Donald Trump cited Assange’s denial as evidence that the Obama administration was using the “Russia hacked the election” narrative to try to discredit him, but Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan warned against trusting Assange.
In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Wednesday morning, Ryan slammed Assange as a “sycophant for Russia,” adding he hoped that Trump would soon learn the truth about Russian involvement in the election-year hacking.
“The guy is a creep,” said Hewitt of Assange. “He’s wanted on a rape in Sweden. I don’t trust a word he says. He is a Russian front… Anyone who believes anything Julian Assange says, you just have to ask yourself: When are you going to wake up to the fact he’s a very bad guy?”
Ryan agreed, describing Assange as a “sycophant for Russia” who “steals data and compromises national security.”
“I think he has not received his Russia briefing yet,” Ryan said of Trump. “I believe that is scheduled for Friday, so hopefully he’ll get to up to speed on what has been happening and what Russia has or has not done. And he’ll be better informed on that.”
Trump has been openly skeptical about U.S. intelligence conclusions that the Russians were behind the hacks targeting the Democratic party, and has particularly hammered President Obama on the glaring inconsistency in his response to the proven Chinese hacking of government agencies and the alleged Russian hacking. Obama’s decision to make a show of his retaliation against Russia, says Team Trump, is an attempt to delegitimize Trump’s presidency.
Trump also responded Tuesday night to Assange revealing how easy it was to hack Podesta’s emails.
“Julian Assange said ‘a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta’ – why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!” Trump tweeted.
Assange told Sean Hannity that Podesta’s password was actually “password.”
“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 suggested that the allegations were an attempt by the Obama administration to undermine Trump: “Our publications had wide uptake by the American people, they’re all true. 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…”