American Officials: Russia Has Provided Emails to WikiLeaks

CNN reported, citing American officials, that there is increasing evidence suggesting that it is Russia that hacked emails related to the U.S. presidential election and provided them to WikiLeaks. The media outlet wrote on Friday, October 15, without naming its sources, that Russia is actually using WikiLeaks as a tool to transmit these messages and stolen information. According to one of these officials, the manner in which WikiLeaks has disclosed information about the presidential election indicates that 'Moscow is at least providing this information or is likely directly responsible for the leak.' About two weeks before the publication of this report, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, stated that the website would publish one million documents related to current and former U.S. governments and presidential elections by the end of this year. WikiLeaks had previously published emails exchanged among some members of the Democratic National Committee, which revealed their interference in the party's primaries in favor of Hillary Clinton. The release of these emails led to the resignation of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chair of the Democratic National Committee. Meanwhile, CNN writes that U.S. security agencies are investigating the extent of WikiLeaks' relationship with the Russian government. However, they are confident that Russia is behind the information leak and email hacking. The media outlet states that it has attempted to interview Julian Assange on this matter, but he has not responded to CNN's request. Mr. Assange has previously denied any collaboration or connection between Russia and WikiLeaks.