Julian Assange tells Megyn Kelly why WikiLeaks isn't releasing dirt on Donald Trump

Megyn Kelly interviews Julian Assange
(Image credit: Fox News/YouTube)

On Wednesday's Kelly File, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told Megyn Kelly that his organization would release potentially "significant" information on Hillary Clinton before the November election, and on Thursday's show, Kelly played the part of the interview where Assange talks about Donald Trump. "You're clearly not rooting for Hillary, but are you rooting for Trump?" Kelly asked. "No, I mean, if we have good information on Trump, we publish that," Assange said.

"You know, some people have asked us, 'When will you release information on Donald Trump?'" Assange said later. "And of course we're very interested in all countries, to reveal the truth about any candidate, so people can understand, but actually it's really hard for us to release anything worse than what comes out of Donald Trump's mouth every second day. I mean, it's part of his charismatic appeal that he speaks off the cuff, but, you know, that's difficult for Donald Trump to overcome, a lot of those things, even with a lot of great material coming out by WikiLeaks and other publications."

If that sounds like WikiLeaks is trying to help Trump, remember, Assange says he isn't taking sides. And he doesn't want you to blame Russian hackers for the Democratic National Committee leaks or other Democratic Party cyber-infiltration, as the U.S. intelligence community does. "The allegations by the Clinton campaign that everyone is a Russian agent are really disturbing," Assange said. "Why is that? Well, bizarrely, Hillary Clinton, the Democrat, has become, has positioned herself now, as being the security candidate. She's palled up with the neocons responsible for the Iraq War and she's grabbed on to this sort of neo-McCarthyist hysteria about Russia, and is using that to demonize the Trump campaign."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Kelly also asked about WikiLeaks' interest in murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich, and Assange suggested that Rich was a WikiLeaks source but declined to accuse anyone of his murder. She also asked about an Associated Press report outlining private information on rape victims, gay Saudis, and other "collateral damage" in some of Assange's dumps. "Well, it's a nonsense report," he said. "Its not by AP, it's not some big team at AP who put this together, it's by a single journalist... who has a conflict of interest — have a look at him on Twitter." You can watch the entire segment below. Peter Weber

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.