WikiLeaks, an organization that bills itself in the business of transparency, has released a bizarre statement regarding their behavior in the United States election, specifically that they are not working with a Russian hacker group or playing favorites:
Assange statement: What are the reasons behind WikiLeaks exposures of the DNC and the Clinton campaign? https://t.co/Q6KEChqm1B pic.twitter.com/sbQcg6jpi7
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) November 8, 2016
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange defended his company’s release of the hacked Democratic emails which have whipped Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign into panic. In his full statement, Assange makes several bizarrely defensive claims about his company and their purpose in releasing the hacked emails. In a dubious claim, Assange states there was no malign intent towards Clinton’s campaign:
“This is not due to a personal desire to influence the outcome of the election. The Democratic and Republican candidates have both expressed hostility towards whistleblowers. I spoke at the launch of the campaign for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, because her platform addresses the need to protect them. This is an issue that is close to my heart because of the Obama administration’s inhuman and degrading treatment of one of our alleged sources, Chelsea Manning. But WikiLeaks publications are not an attempt to get Jill Stein elected or to take revenge over Ms Manning’s treatment either.”
Assange also manages to deftly dodge the link between his company and the Russian hacker group that almost assuredly supplied them with the published emails:
“The Clinton campaign, when they were not spreading obvious untruths, pointed to unnamed sources or to speculative and vague statements from the intelligence community to suggest a nefarious allegiance with Russia. The campaign was unable to invoke evidence about our publications—because none exists.”
Notice how Assange never denies that his company received the emails from Russia. He just attacks Clinton’s campaign for suggesting it through “speculative and vague statements.” All evidence points to the Democratic email hacks being obviously linked to a Russian-sponsored hacking group.
The most bizarre claim Assange makes, however, is the following:
“… Irrespective of the outcome of the 2016 US Presidential election, the real victor is the US public which is better informed as a result of our work.”
This is a patently false claim. The WikiLeaks email dump has done nothing but divert attention away from real issues, policy questions, and scandals. It is an issue that has completely dominated news network coverage of the election. However, the FBI has again stated that nothing in the Clinton campaign emails would warrant bringing criminal charges against the nominee.
Regardless, Republican nominee Donald Trump and his supporters regularly call for Clinton to be, at best, sent to prison and, at worst, executed as a traitor.
The fact remains that Assange very publicly dislikes Clinton, and he very clearly showed his hand in the 2016 election. To attempt to walk that back with this strange statement seems like a desperate move to trick people into thinking WikiLeaks remains impartial and only cares about informing the public.
Featured Image by Espen Moe / CC By 2.0 via Flickr
