WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is boasting about how his group’s release of hacked Democratic National Committee emails is affecting the US presidential election – and says it has unreleased information about Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
“We have more material related to the Hillary Clinton campaign,” Assange told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on “Anderson 360” Friday night. “That is correct to say that.”
Assange has been coy about how WikiLeaks came into possession of internal Democratic party cyber information. The FBI and Justice Department are investigating a computer hack of Democratic nominee Clinton’s presidential campaign in addition to its examination of intrusions of other Democratic Party organizations, two law enforcement officials told CNN.
The revelation comes just days after the leak of thousands of Democratic National Committee emails – US officials allege Russian hackers – prompted major turmoil within the party, causing the abrupt resignation of its chairwoman, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Assange said release of the information was timed to coincide with the start of the Democratic National Convention.
“That’s when we knew there would be maximum interest by readers, but also, we have a responsibility to,” Assange said. “If we published after, you can just imagine how outraged the Democratic voting population would have been. It had to had to have been before (the convention).”
Cooper asked Assange if the hack was connected to his “personal animus” toward Clinton.
“There is a question whether you have a personal animus toward Hillary Clinton. You criticized her on a number of issues. You gave an interview to the British network back in June, suggesting you are more concerned about Clinton at least in terms of press freedom than Donald Trump,” Cooper said. “Do you stand by that? Is this based on a personal animus?”
But Assange pushed back on the idea that he wanted to “harm” Clinton.
“You can go back and look at that interview. I never said I wanted to do harm to Hillary Clinton, anything like that,” he said. “It was the presenter that used that term.”
Assange also said more material is forthcoming that is “extremely interesting.”
“We have more material related to the Hillary Clinton campaign. That is correct to say that,” he said. “Those are extremely interesting. We will see what will come of them.”
Assange spoke from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he faces extradition over sexual assault allegations.
