WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Friday dismissed claims he aimed to help President-elect Donald Trump win the election by publishing Hillary Clinton and campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails, telling La Repubblica that it was done in the name of "democracy."

"We have been publishing about Hillary Clinton for many years, because of her position as Secretary of State," said Assange, who has been living in asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012.

"We have been publishing her cables since 2010 and her emails also. We are domain experts on Clinton and her post 2008 role in government. This is why it is natural for sources who have information on Hillary Clinton to come to us. They know we will understand its significance."

There were claims that Assange had specifically targeted Clinton and the DNC after publishing thousands of emails from her camp and none on Trump, the Republican nominee, or the RNC.

But Assange said there was no truth to those assertions.

"We published what the Democratic National Committee, John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, and Hillary Clinton herself were saying about their own campaign, which the American people read and were very interested to read, and assessed the elements and characters, and then they made a decision," said Assange, 44.

Assange made clear his disregard for Clinton, alleging in the interview that she led the charge on imprisoning Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. Army soldier who disclosed classified and unclassified material to WikiLeaks and that she was behind the war against Libya.

He said he had mixed feelings on how Trump would fare, calling him a member of the wealthy ruling elite of the United States who was surrounding himself with a “weak structure.”