WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange denied claims that Russia was the source of hacked Democratic party emails that hurt Hillary Clinton’s bid for presidency, at the same time, WikiLeaks called for leaked White House documents before President Barack Obama leaves office on the 20th of January.
The whistle blowing site announced on twitter as it urged system admins not to let the White House destroy US history again as it urged them to copy and send the leaks to WikiLeaks at their own leisure. This tweet was posted shortly before Julian Assange gave an in-depth interview to US Fox network.
The tweet emphasized that WikiLeaks was going to issue $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest or exposure of any Obama admin agent destroying significant records.
Assange’s extended interview with Fox was hosted at the Ecuadoran embassy in London where he sought refuge in June 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning about an alleged rape.
Assange did not shed light on who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails from the Clinton campaign chief John Podesta and the Democratic National Committee. The US intelligence reportedly concluded that release was an attempt by the Kremlin to tip the election in favor of Clinton’s Republican opponent, Donald Trump, due to the fact that the documents were released during the US election campaign.
The WikiLeaks founder insisted that no Russian government-linked party was the source of the material that was hacked. Assange was asked as to whether he thought the leaks of the Podesta and the DNC emails led to Trump’s victory in the just concluded election in November, he replied saying that “Who knows, it’s impossible to tell." However, he reiterated that if the leaks did, the accusation is that the statements from Hillary Clinton, the DNC head Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and John Podesta changed the election.
Assange also made it clear that WikiLeaks was not political in nature but its main aim was to provide facts that governments don’t. He also stated that WikiLeaks has a perfect record for authenticating the information it publishes, adding that WikiLeaks tries to preserve reputation.
The WikiLeaks founder is wanted for questioning in Sweden following allegations by a woman who claims that she was raped by Assange during a visit to Stockholm. Assange insisted they had consensual sex as he denied the allegation. As a result, he refused to travel to Sweden for questioning due to fears of being extradited to the U.S. over the release of 500,000 secret military files on the 2010 Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
