MANY people are blaming the Russians for the Democrats email hack, but Julian Assange has reminded people of some embarrassing facts.

The WikiLeaks founder has been copping a lot of criticism over the website’s publication of the leaked emails, with some insisting the Russians were behind their release.

But in a Fox News interview on Tuesday night, Mr Assange insisted WikiLeaks had not received the 50,000 hacked emails from the Russian government or a state party.

Hackers took thousands of emails and documents from the computers of the Democratic National Committee and from Hillary Clinton campaign chief John Podesta, which were published by WikiLeaks in the weeks ahead of the November 8 presidential election.

In deflecting claims Russia gave the emails to WikiLeaks, Assange said a 14-year-old could have hacked Mr Podesta’s emails.

He said WikiLeaks published emails from Mr Podesta that showed him responding to a phishing email and the campaign chief also gave out his password, which happened to be the word “password”.

“This is something a 14-year-old kid could have hacked,” Mr Assange said.

“We can say, we have said, repeatedly that over the last two months that our source is not the Russian government and it is not a state party,” he said.

Whether Mr Podesta’s lax password made any difference to hackers, at the very least it’s given Mr Assange ammunition to hit back at Ms Clinton’s lacklustre approach to cyber security.

Mr Assange said Ms Clinton made almost no attempt to keep her emails secure from foreign states when she was Secretary of State, citing an FBI investigation into Ms Clinton’s private email server use that revealed technicians, as well as staff such as close aide Huma Abedin, had access to Ms Clinton’s emails.

Old laptops containing outdated archives were also shipped through the post and Clinton had used more than a dozen mobile phones over the years to login to her accounts.

It was also noted that Ms Clinton did not know how to use a computer and relied on her BlackBerry to read and respond to her emails.

The leaked emails published on WikiLeaks were separate to the FBI investigation, but they contained some embarrassing revelations that some commentators say likely contributed to Trump’s victory in the election.

Details included speeches Ms Clinton made to Wall Street firms and other businesses that spoke of the need for a “public and private position” while “back room discussions” were taking place.

They also revealed a former CNN contributor warned Ms Clinton about a question she would be asked about the death penalty ahead of a town hall-style event, feeding suspicions about media bias.

The Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have both concluded the Russian government was behind the hacking, and intentionally divulged the documents via WikiLeaks to disrupt the election.

But Mr Assange said he thought the Obama administration was pushing the idea of Russian meddling in the election to delegitimise President-elect Donald Trump.

“They are trying to say that President-elect Trump is not a legitimate president,” he said.

Following his comments, the WikiLeaks founder’s reputation now seems to be undergoing some kind of rehabilitation among those in conservative circles.

Mr Trump, who once said the WikiLeaks founder deserved the “death penalty” and whose own lack of computer-savvy has been exposed, appeared to back Mr Assange’s claim the Russians did not give him the leaked emails, despite the CIA and FBI’s contrary view.

“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 posted.

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! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017

Former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, whose own emails were once released to WikiLeaks, has apologised to Mr Assange over Twitter.

To Julian Assange: I apologize.



Please watch Sean Hannity's interview with Julian Assange (Wikileaks).... https://t.co/w3ZDU1aMDY — Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) January 4, 2017

In a Facebook post, Ms Palin said the Democratic Party documents published by WikiLeaks “finally opened people’s eyes to Democrat candidates and operatives [that] would not have been exposed were it not for Julian Assange”.

But the support for Mr Assange has also been widely criticised.

Mr Trump has persistently questioned the conclusion that Russia was to blame for the email hack, saying it is simply a case of sour grapes by the losing Democrats, rather than professional intelligence analysis.

But his choice to cite Mr Assange against the CIA and FBI roiled officials in both political parties and angered the intelligence community.

In a radio interview Wednesday, Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan branded Mr Assange “a sycophant for Russia.”

“He leaks, he steals data, and compromises national security.”

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham also questioned Mr Trump’s choice. “I don’t believe any American should give a whole lot of credibility to what Mr Assange says,” he said on CNN.

The former spokesman of the CIA, George Little, blasted Trump, using the acronym for president-elect of the United States.

“No PEOTUS in our history has ever mocked his own intelligence community so openly or so often,” Little said via Twitter.

“Let’s stare this reality square in the face: PEOTUS is pro-Putin and believes Julian Assange over the @CIA. On Jan. 20 we will be less safe.”

— with AFP

charis.chang@news.com.au