WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has said Barack Obama is 'trying to delegitimize the Trump administration' by claiming the Russian government hacked Democrats' emails during the bitter presidential election.

Assange, whose interview with Sean Hannity will air on Fox News tonight, also reiterated his claims that Russia was not the source of the hacks.

He told Hannity 'with a thousand per cent' confidence that the Russian government was not responsible for emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman.

Julian Assange, whose interview will air on Fox News tonight, reiterated his claims that the Russian government was not responsible for the hacks during the 2016 presidential election

In tonight's interview on Fox News, Assange claims Obama's administration are 'trying to say that President-elect Trump is not a legitimate President'

Those emails were published online by WikiLeaks in the lead-up to the November 8 vote.

Democrats claimed the hacks were a deliberate attempt to undermine Mrs Clinton's campaign and boost support for Donald Trump.

Last week as the row intensified, Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats from the country. They arrived back in Russia on Monday morning.

Moscow denies any involvement in election-related hacking.

Last week Obama expelled 35 Russians over the hacking allegations during the presidential election

Assange is currently living under political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he sought refuge from a Swedish investigation into rape allegations from his 2010 visit to the country.

The interview tonight marks his first face-to-face TV news appearance.

WIKILEAKS: '2017 WILL BLOW YOU AWAY' A tweet from the WikiLeaks account last night said: ' If you thought 2016 was a big WikiLeaks year 2017 will blow you away.' The post also called for donations to help the site 'prepare for the showdown'. Advertisement

Speaking to Hannity about the WikiLeaks revelations, he 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.

'Our publications had wide uptake by the American people, they're all true. But that's not the allegation that's being presented by the Obama White House.

'So, why such a dramatic response? Well, the reason is obvious. They're trying to delegitimize the Trump administration as it goes into the White House.

'They are trying to say that President-elect Trump is not a legitimate President.'

Last week Obama expelled 35 Russians over the hacking allegations during the presidential election.

The US government accused the diplomats of 'acting in a manner inconsistent with their diplomatic status' – a euphemism for spying – and gave them 72 hours to leave the country.

A tweet from the WikiLeaks account last night said: ' If you thought 2016 was a big WikiLeaks year 2017 will blow you away'

Using Cold War rhetoric, he said the hacking 'could only have been directed by the highest levels of the Russian government', suggesting Russian President Vladimir Putin was personally involved.

The Russian government dismissed hacking allegations as absurd but Putin declined to order a tit-for-tat expulsion of American diplomats, claiming he would not 'stoop' to Obama's level.