Wikileaks colluding with Russia to help Trump: Clinton campaign

Podesta said the FBI shared they were investigating criminal hacking involving the Russian intelligence

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton listens to Republican counterpart Donald Trump at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. (Reuters)
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during the presidential town hall debate with his Democratic counterpart Hillary Clinton at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. (Reuters)
Press Trust of India Washington
Last Updated : Oct 14 2016 | 4:13 PM IST
Hillary Clinton's campaign has slammed Wikileaks founder Julian Assange for hacking into its e-mail system, accusing it further of colluding with Russia to help her Republican rival Donald Trump.

The head of Clinton's campaign team, John Podesta, blamed Russia for the alleged hacking of thousands of e-mails of its campaign staff and officials.

"I've been involved in politics for nearly five decades, and this definitely is the first campaign that I've been involved with, in which I've had to tangle with Russian intelligence agencies, who seem to be doing everything they can on behalf of our opponent," Podesta told reporters.

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Podesta said he is in touch with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in this regard.

It also alleged that the Republican rival campaign of Donald Trump might have some inkling about it.

"I was in touch with the FBI on October 9 (and) they confirmed that they're investigating a criminal hack of my email and we, of course, are fully cooperating with that investigation. We also heard from law enforcement authorities today (October 12) (who said) that investigation (reveals)  hacking...(b)y Russian intelligence," Podesta said.

"I know that members of the press are having a good time live tweeting and live blogging what's coming out of WikiLeaks and we can't confirm the accuracy of those leaks," he said.

Podesta based his allegations on reports that Roger Stone, a longtime friend of Trump, had spoken to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, this summer.

"Stone pointed his finger at me, and said that I could expect some treatment that would expose me and ultimately sent out a tweet that said it would be my time in the barrel," he said.

"So I think it's a reasonable assumption, or at least a reasonable conclusion, that Mr Stone and the Trump campaign had advance warning about what Assange was going to do. I think there's at least a reasonable belief that Mr Assange may have passed this information on to Mr Stone," Podesta alleged.

The Clinton campaign on Tuesday alleged that many of its e-mails have been maliciously altered.

"If you are going to write about materials issued by @wikileaks, you should at least state they are products of illegal hack by a foreign govt," Clinton's press secretary Brian Fallon said in a tweet.

"Media needs to stop treating Wikileaks like it is same as the Freedom Of Information Act. Assange is colluding with Russian government to help Trump," he said in another tweet.

"Why would there be this active engagement by the Russians in the DNC and other Democratic organisations, [and] into my private email account? Well, I think you could start by looking at the positions that Mr Trump has taken during the course of this campaign," Podesta said.

"Ones that are more consistent with Russian foreign policy than with US foreign policy," he alleged.

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First Published: Oct 12 2016 | 2:28 PM IST

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