Hillary Clinton: WikiLeaks is a 'tool of Russian intelligence'

"I think Assange has become a kind of nihilistic opportunist who does the bidding of a dictator."
 By 
Johnny Lieu
 on 
Hillary Clinton: WikiLeaks is a 'tool of Russian intelligence'
Hillary Clinton claims WikiLeaks contributed to her losing the U.S. presidential race. Credit: Corbis via Getty Images

Yeah, so we all know Hillary Clinton and WikiLeaks' Julian Assange aren't the best of friends.

Well, now it's heating up. In an excerpt of an interview set to air on Australian TV program 4 Corners on Monday night, Clinton accused Assange of colluding with Russia to harm her presidential campaign.

"I think Assange has become a kind of nihilistic opportunist who does the bidding of a dictator," she said.

Responding to a question about Assange being seen as a martyr for free speech, Clinton said he is "a tool of Russian intelligence" and asked why WikiLeaks doesn't publish anything coming out of Russia.

She claimed WikiLeaks stole information instead of receiving it, and worked closely with Russia and people in the U.S. to "weaponise that information" against her, allowing Trump to win the presidency.

"I lost the electoral college by about 77,000, and what we're finding out is that there had to be some very sophisticated help provided to WikiLeaks ... to know how to target both their messages of suppression and their negative messages to affect voters," she told the program.

Clinton pointed to the timing of WikiLeaks' release of emails from Clinton's campaign manager at the time, John Podesta, and how that softened the blow of Trump's "grab her by the p*ssy" tape.

"I've no doubt in my mind that there was some communication if not coordination to drop those the first time in response to the Hollywood Access tape," she said.

Assange responded to the claims on Twitter Monday morning, saying there was "something wrong" with Clinton, and accused her of being a "constant liar."

Welp, now this should be a good interview then.

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Johnny Lieu

Mashable Australia's Web Culture Reporter.Reach out to me on Twitter at @Johnny_Lieu or via email at jlieu [at] mashable.com

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