Image: Bill Koplitz/FEMA
WikiLeaks is promising to release secret documents relating to the U.S. election, at a time when there are already questions over whether Russian hackers are feeding the site information.
WikiLeaks will publish the documents “every week for the next 10 weeks” and the topics include the U.S. election, war, arms, Google, and mass surveillance, site founder Julian Assange said on Tuesday in a press conference.
All the U.S. election documents will be released before Nov. 8, when voters cast their ballots. The leaks pertain to “U.S. power factions and how they operate,” Assange said. However, he denied deliberately trying to sabotage Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s election chances.
“There’s been a lot of misquoting of me and WikiLeaks publications,” he added.
YoutubeWikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks at a video press conference.
The upcoming leaks will come as cybersecurity experts worry that hackers — possibly backed by the Russian government — are trying to shape media coverage of this year’s presidential election.
For the past months, websites claiming to be from hacktivists have leaked stolen emails and documents taken from political committees and U.S. officials — some of which may be painting Clinton in a harsh light.
WikiLeaks may also be playing a role. In July, the site published more than 19,000 emails, taken from the Democratic National Committee, that threatened to derail voter support for Clinton.
WikiLeaks hasn’t revealed its source for the stolen emails. But the DNC was the recent victim of a high-profile data breach that officials blamed on Russian state-sponsored hackers.
Although the FBI is investigating the breach, U.S. intelligence officials are reportedly confident the Russian government was in some way involved. Clinton herself has also said Russia hacked the DNC.
But in an interview earlier this year, Assange said there was no proof supporting that claim. “Of course, this is a diversion pushed by the Hillary Clinton campaign,” he said.
On Tuesday, Assange didn’t mention whether the upcoming leaks would only deal with Clinton or also her rival Donald Trump. But WikiLeaks is also recruiting an army of internet users to defend the site from “pressure” the site is facing from critics.
The first publication of the documents will start this week, Assange said.
