U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday pointed to remarks by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on the hacking of Democratic Party emails as he questioned U.S. intelligence agencies’ assessment that Russian hackers were behind the breach.
“Julian Assange said ‘a 14-year-old could have hacked Podesta’ why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info’’ Trump said referring to the Democratic National Committee, the party’s formal governing body.
He had earlier claimed a briefing on the hacking had been “delayed until Friday, perhaps more time needed to build a case. Very strange’’
Obama last week expelled Russian diplomats and ordered new sanctions over the hacking that he says was an attempt to interfere in the U.S. presidential elections.
Trump has been skeptical of U.S. intelligence claims, and vice president-elect Mike Pence pointed to past intelligence failures.
In an interview with Fox News, Assange said Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta had opened himself up to the hacking through a phishing expedition that could have been carried out by a “14-year-old kid’’.
WikiLeaks published a series of emails during the presidential election from the DNC and Podesta’s private email that were seen as damaging to Clinton’s campaign against Trump.
Assange denied that WikiLeaks received the emails from the Russian government and dismissed the U.S. intelligence assessment. (dpa/NAN)