WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange participates via video link at a news conference marking the 10th anniversary of the secrecy-spilling group in Berlin, Germany on October 4. | AP Photo WikiLeaks claims 'state party' cut Assange's internet connection

The internet connection of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been cut “by a state party,” the document-dumping organization announced Monday morning on Twitter.

In a post to its Twitter account, WikiLeaks did not announce which state party had cut the internet connection.


Assange has lived inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012, where he has remained in order to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted in connection with a rape allegation. Assange has said he fears he would be extradited to the United States to face espionage charges if he were to step outside the Ecuadorian Embassy.

WikiLeaks has taken on a greater role in the presidential election in recent days, releasing thousands of pages of allegedly hacked emails from the personal account of Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. Neither the Clinton campaign nor Podesta himself has verified the authenticity of the emails, which detail the inner working of the former secretary of state’s White House bid.

Podesta is far from the only high-level political figure to become the target of online hackers. An attack on the email systems of the Democratic National Committee yielded embarrassing messages that led to the resignation of committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz just days before the start of her party’s nominating convention in Philadelphia. And emails belonging to former Secretary of State Colin Powell exposed his criticisms of both Clinton and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Earlier this month, the U.S. government blamed those attacks and others on Russia, whose “thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the U.S. election process,” Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said. That the emails have been hacked almost exclusively from Democratic sources has led many to assume that the attacks are intended to favor Trump, seen as friendlier candidate to the Russian government.

Podesta said it was a “reasonable conclusion” that Roger Stone, a Trump ally who has spoken to Assange, has been given advance warning of the leaks. Both Stone and Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence have denied any connection to any email hacking.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said last week that he could not specifically tie Podesta’s hacked emails to the Russian government since their publication did not begin until after the U.S. had released its intelligence assessment on the other attacks.

In its Tweet announcing that Assange’s internet connection had been severed, WikiLeaks said that it had “activated the appropriate contingency plans.”

Any impediment to WikiLeaks' posting abilities caused by the cutting of Assange's internet connection appeared remedied by Monday afternoon, when the organization posted another batch of allegedly hacked Podesta emails to its website. WikiLeaks had previously been posting such batches in the morning but waited until the afternoon on Monday to release its latest group of emails.

The group claimed on Twitter later on Monday that Ecuador was behind the disruption, without offering any evidence.

"We can confirm Ecuador cut off Assange's internet access Saturday, 5pm GMT, shortly after publication of Clinton's Goldman Sachs speechs," the group tweeted.