Wendy Long

Wendy Long is the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate.

(Beowulf Sheehan)

BUFFALO, N.Y.-- The Republican U.S. Senate candidate challenging Sen. Charles Schumer called on Friday for a full pardon of Julian Assange, the Wikileaks founder, for the release of hacked emails that have "served a far greater good of truth and transparency" than Assange's alleged crimes.

Wendy Long said Assange's release of the emails, which have shed light on behind-the-scenes decisionmaking of Democrat Hillary Clinton and her campaign, demonstrate "mainstream media" failures and Clinton's hypocrisy.

This is a Friday, Feb. 5, 2016 file photo of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange holds a U.N. report as he speaks on the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

"Assange is the only source of transparency and truth that most Americans now have about some of the most important matters affecting this election and our country," Long said in a news release. "We need him, we need his help, and we need him on the side of America."

Assange has found asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy for several years after an international arrest warrant was issued against him on unrelated sexual assault allegations. He's denied those allegations, saying they are a ruse to extradite him to face reprisal for a previous release of classified Iraq War records and videos.

The United State Government has accused the Russian hackers for the latest hacks of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta that were released through Wikileaks. The emails have raised questions about Clinton's public and private identity, her relationship with the news media, her statements to Wall Street executives, her trade philosophy and a number of other issues.

Republican nominee Donald Trump has disputed the U.S. government's assertion that Russians are behind the hack. Also, the Clinton campaign has not confirmed the authenticity of released emails.

Long, the Republican candidate, has increasingly tied her positions to Trump's throughout the course of the campaign, even while Republicans elsewhere are distancing themselves from the candidate. Lawn signs throughout Upstate New York feature the names of both candidates.

She drew criticism locally for suggesting on Twitter that increased crime followed the conversion of a North Side church into a mosque. U.S. Rep. John Katko, who recently announced he would not support Trump, called her comments "disgraceful."

Long, 56, a lawyer from New York City, lost a previous U.S. Senate bid in 2012 to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who won by a landslide, 72 percent to 26 percent.

The polling site Fivethirtyeight.com gives Long less than a one-tenth of 1 percent chance of winning the election against Schumer, the incumbent, who stands to become the Senate's majority leader.

Long's news release also took aim at the "mainstream media," which she said is abandoning its role in holding officials accountable and cozying up to Democrats and Clinton.

"Investigative journalism is dead in this country, and citizen journalists are trying to fill the void," she said. "We know that almost 100 percent of the mainstream media are in the tank for Hillary Clinton. And were it not for Julian Assange, we would not know that."