WikiLeaks claimed on Tuesday that Secretary of State John Kerry personally appealed to Ecuador to stop WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from publishing information damaging to Hillary Clinton.

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BREAKING: Multiple US sources tell us John Kerry asked Ecuador to stop Assange from publishing Clinton docs during FARC peace negotiations. — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 18, 2016



"Multiple US sources tell us John Kerry asked Ecuador to stop Assange from publishing Clinton docs during FARC peace negotiations," WikiLeaks said in a message on Twitter. Kerry was involved with negotiations aimed at ceasing hostilities with the Marxist guerrilla group.

WikiLeaks added in a second message, "The John Kerry private meeting with Ecuador was made on the sidelines of the negotiations which took place [principally] on Sep 26 in Colombia."

State Department spokesman John Kirby said the accusation is "false."

"While our concerns about WikiLeaks are longstanding, any suggestion that Secretary Kerry or the State Department were involved in shutting down WikiLeaks is false," he said in a statement. "Reports that Secretary Kerry had conversations with Ecuadorian officials about this are simply untrue. Period."

WikiLeaks said Monday that Ecuador cut the Internet connection for Assange, who has been holed up in the country's London embassy since 2012. He is wanted in Sweden on charges of sexual assault, but has expressed fear that he could be extradited to the United States for espionage should he leave the embassy.