In back-to-back interviews with Fox News, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange criticized the U.S. media for “incredible politicization” in its coverage of the presidential election, and vowed there are more shoes to drop before the Nov. 8 vote.
Assange appeared Friday morning on “Fox & Friends,” where he said “significant” information would be published on the site regarding Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, but did not specify what it would be.
“I know you guys would love it if we scooped ourselves on ‘Fox & Friends,’ but we’re not going to do that,” Assange said from the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where he has lived for nearly five years as he fights extradition to Sweden where he is wanted on charges relating to sexual assault that his supporters say are politically driven.
Assange said information regarding Clinton’s health is fair game, and noted that in an email already disclosed by the organization, Clinton refers to her own “cracked head.” He said he had information about GOP nominee Donald Trump as well, but indicated it may not be as revelatory as critics might hope.
It is difficult “for us to publish more controversial material than what comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth every day,” Assange said. He also suggested Clinton and other officials have enjoyed a form of “elite immunity.”
“Fox & Friends” spoke with Assange hours after Fox News’ “The Kelly File” aired an interview, the second in a two-part series of questions and answers with him.
Assange’s group was behind a trove of Democratic National Committee emails leaked on the eve of the party’s convention revealed a bias against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign and led to the resignation of chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
“I’d like to believe that no media organization would not publish the DNC emails,” Assange told Fox News’ “The Kelly File”. “[But] I think MSNBC wouldn’t publish [nor would] The New York Times … That’s sad.”
Assange discussed Wikileaks offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to a conviction in the killing of DNC staffer Seth Rich, who was shot and killed in Washington early on July 10.
“Why are you so interested in Seth Rich’s killer?” Kelly asked Assange.
“We’re very interested in anything that might be a threat to Wikileaks’ sources,” Assange answered, later adding that Wikileaks had “received a variety of information” about the case. Assange would neither confirm nor deny that Rich was “necessarily connected to our publications.”
Assange also accused the Clinton campaign of stoking “a kind of neo-McCarthy hysteria” about Russia’s alleged role in the DNC hacking and Moscow’s purported links to the Trump campaign.
“The Trump campaign has a lot of things wrong with it,” Assange said, “but as far as we can see being Russian agents is not one of them.”
On Wednesday, Assange told “The Kelly File” that “absolutely” new information culled from Clinton’s emails would be released prior to the November election.
Earlier Thursday, a federal judge ordered the State Department to begin releasing almost 15,000 more emails from Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state by Sept. 13. The emails were uncovered by the FBI during their investigation into Clinton’s use of a private server.
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