CIA chief Mike Pompeo’s recent harsh criticism of WikiLeaks was a “preemptive defense” to counter controversy generated by the whistleblowing organization’s releases of spy agency secret files, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told The Intercept outlet Wednesday.
Last Thursday, Pompeo called WikiLeaks a “non-state hostile intelligence service, often abetted by state actors, like Russia” in his first public speech as the agency head.
“The reason why Director Pompeo is launching this attack, is because he knows we’re in this series exposing all sorts of illegal actions by the CIA,” Assange said, referring to the Vault 7 releases of CIA confidential documents.
According to Assange, Pompeo was launching “a preemptive defense.”
Assange also spoke about the allegations that WikiLeaks may have been helped by the Russian intelligence in targeting, specifically, the Democratic Party and its candidate in 2016 US presidential election, Hillary Clinton.
Assange said that the information came from a source that was not “part of a government.”
According to Assange, WikiLeaks could not publish any Republican Party’s revelatory emails because it did not have any, and not due to any alliance with Republicans.
The WikiLeaks founder also stressed that his organization was not in contact with Trump’s political adviser, Roger Stone, despite the latter’s claims to the contrary.
In March, Assange stressed that he had never been paid by the Russian government.