Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is claiming again that a Russian-connected source didn't leak hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee to his organization. That's contrary to the U.S. intelligence community's recent conclusions.
That assertion and Wikileaks' increasingly partisan rhetoric has at least one Republican pundit, Sean Hannity, changing his tune toward the controversial figure.
SEE ALSO:What we do and don't know about Russia's interference in the presidential election“We can say, we have said repeatedly over the last two months, that our source is not the Russian government. And it is not a state party,” Assange says in a new interview with Fox News' Hannity, the first part of which will air on Tuesday night.
In the promo clip, Assange points out that none of the statements released by the United States government about Russia's interference with the presidential election mention Wikileaks outright. Assange also says he has not spoken to Vladimir Putin, his surrogates or Donald Trump.
Hannity seems in awe of his interview subject, telling Fox News' Bill Hemmer that “His knowledge of American politics is at a level that most constitutional scholars would admire."
But he hasn't always been so welcoming.
In 2010, the Fox News star accused Assange of "waging war against the U.S." by publishing diplomatic cables, which Hannity said put American lives in danger all over the world.
He also questioned why the Obama administration had not arrested him, saying, "You know, we can stop pirating music and Hollywood movies, but we can’t stop this guy from stealing highly classified documents that puts people’s lives at risk?" on a 2010 episodeof Hannity.
He now praises Wikileaks for exposing corruption in American's political system. In a recap of his latest interview with Assange, Hannity told Hemmer that he believes "every word" that Assange told him.
Leading up to the election and afterwards, Wikileaks was perceived as favoring Donald Trump, particularly on the organization’s Twitter account, which is believed to be primarily controlled by Assange himself.
A tale of two @ODNIgov statements #Russia #FakeNews #DNCLeak #PodestaEmails #ClintonEmails pic.twitter.com/w3eiC43dTr
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) December 30, 2016
Obama's Russia sanctions: Note that the 'hacking' report released today:
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) December 29, 2016
1) Doesn't mention WikiLeaks
2) Has the following disclaimer: pic.twitter.com/fu4QbRlcyB
Wikileaks also came under fire for selling a T-shirtthat read "What is worse: Bill Clinton 'dicking bimbos' or Bill Clinton at home?"
In a Reddit AMA, Wikileaks editors maintain that they "were not publishing with the goal to get any specific candidate elected."
"We were publishing with the one goal of making the elections as transparent as possible," they wrote.
Wikileaks editors and Assange have said they would publish information on any candidate, but have chosen not to publish information about Donald Trump.
"We do have some information about the Republican campaign,” Assange said in August.But he decided it wasn't controversial enough to publish.
"I mean, it’s from a point of view of an investigative journalist organization like WikiLeaks, the problem with the Trump campaign is it’s actually hard for us to publish much more controversial material than what comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth every second day," he said.
Assange says WikiLeaks has info on GOP, but it's not really much worse than what Trump is saying publicly pic.twitter.com/kyfXLohdsB
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) August 26, 2016
In October, Assange’s internet access was temporarily cut off, spurring questions about whether Obama had asked Ecuador to restrict his ability to communicate to limit his influence on the election.
In 2010, the U.S. government formally launched a criminal investigation into Wikileaks. In 2012, he was granted asylum by Ecuador, and he has resided in the country's embassy in London ever since.
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