WikiLeaks accused National Public Radio of not being a "credible news organization," responding to its reporting on the hacking scandal that hit Emmanuel Macron's campaign less than two days before the French presidential run-off election.

WikiLeaks said in a tweet Saturday that unlike what is written in the NPR report, it did not publish the nine gigabytes of documents stolen from Macron's campaign and placed online Friday.

NPR is not a credible news organization.



1) WikiLeaks did not publish #MacronLeaks

2) So far only Macron claims "fake docs"--but names none — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) May 6, 2017



In it's report, which was updated at 3:56 p.m. on Saturday, NPR says WikiLeaks "posted" Macron's leaked campaign data. While not technically true — WikiLeaks did not post the documents on its website, which the group does when it is given access to stolen files — WikiLeaks did tweet out a link to the nine gigabytes of data on Pastebin, a document-sharing website. WikiLeaks says it has been working to verify the documents.

WikiLeaks also knocked Macron's campaign for claiming that there are potentially fake documents mixed in with authentic ones, without providing evidence.

"WikiLeaks was the 1st reliable outlet to report the story but it is false and misleading to say 'originated from WikiLeaks,'" the secrets-leaking group said.

Following leaks of documents stolen from Democratic officials last year, including from Hillary Clinton's campaign, the U.S. intelligence agency concluded in a report that WikiLeaks has ties to the Russian government which was working to undermine the 2016 election in Donald Trump's favor. The report also said Russia would likely attempt to meddle in future democratic elections in the U.S. and around the world.

WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, deny any ties to the Russian government.

More recently, CIA Director Mike Pompeo called WikiLeaks a "non-state, hostile intelligence service." Last month it was reported by the Washington Post that the Justice Department is on the verge of pressing criminal charges against WikiLeaks and Assange.

Ben Rhodes, who served as a national security adviser to former President Barack Obama, chided WikiLeaks for calling itself a "credible news organization" while espousing a "pro-Russian, anti-progressive agenda with criminally obtained info."

You are apparently only a "credible news organization" if you peddle a pro-Russian, anti-progressive agenda with criminally obtained info https://t.co/mzrcmeD5aU — Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) May 6, 2017



The French election commission, following a media and candidate black-out starting 44 hours before the election, has warned against spreading information from the leak and that it might be a criminal offence.