WikiLeaks founder denies trying to influence US election
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Tuesday he never intended to influence the US presidential election by publishing copies of emails linked to Hillary Clinton and suggested he would do the same to Donald Trump, if he could.
The secret-spilling website in recent months has published troves of electronic messages sent to or by people in Clinton's campaign, disclosing embarrassing, if not damaging, inside conversations.
"This is not due to a personal desire to influence the outcome of the election," Assange said in a statement, denying that the publications were designed to bolster support for Green Party candidate Jill Stein or to take revenge on the Democratic Party for the jailing of Chelsea Manning, a US former intelligence analyst in Iraq who was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013 for passing secret U.S. government documents to WikiLeaks.
