Assange: WikiLeaks to release ‘a lot more’ on US elections

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says his organization plans to publish “a lot more material” concerning elections in the U.S.

“This is having so much political impact in the United States,” he told CNN on Tuesday, referencing last Friday’s leak of 20,000 internal emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

{mosads}Assange said Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is trying to disrupt focus on the messages by blaming Russia for their release.

“What we have right now is the Hillary Clinton campaign using a speculative allegation about hacks that have occurred in the past to try and divert attention from our emails, another separate issue that WikiLeaks has published,” he said.

“I think this raises a very serious question, which is that the natural instincts of Hillary Clinton and the people around her, that when confronted with a serious domestic political scandal, that she tries to blame the Russians, blame the Chinese, etc,” Assange added. “If she does that when she’s in government, that’s a political, managerial style that can lead to conflict.”

Assange said WikiLeaks would neither confirm nor deny that Russia was behind the theft of the controversial private communications.

“What we try and do as a source protection agency, we like to create maximum ambiguity as to who our sources are,” he said. “Perhaps one day the source or sources will step forward, and it might be an interesting moment. Some people will have egg on their faces.

“Obviously, to exclude certain actors is to make it easier to find out who our sources are. So we never do it.”

WikiLeaks last Friday published a trove of DNC emails spanning the period from last January to late May.

Some of the messages show top DNC officials seemingly planning to undermine Bernie Sanders in his race against Hillary Clinton for the party’s presidential nomination.

The leak created tension at this week’s Democratic National Convention, with some Sanders supporters claiming they confirm suspicions that the party was unfair to his campaign..