A data firm used by the Trump campaign asked Wikileaks' founder Julian Assange in 2016 for access to Hillary Clinton's emails kept on a private server while she was secretary of state, The Daily Beast reported .

The chief executive of Cambridge Analytica, Alexander Nix, sent an email to several people -- including Rebekah Mercer, a top donor to President Donald Trump's campaign -- explaining how he had contacted Assange seeking access to Clinton's private server. Nix wanted to turn her emails into a searchable database for the Trump campaign or for a pro-Trump political action committee, sources familiar with the situation told CNN .

The Trump campaign hired Cambridge Analytica in the summer of 2016 as part of a three-pronged data operation led by Brad Parscale and overseen by Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and a top White House aide.

No one from the Trump campaign was copied on the email, the sources said, and there is no evidence the Democratic presidential nominee's emails were ever hacked or that Wikileaks ever gained possession of them.

Assange confirmed the exchange via Twitter on Wednesday.

I can confirm an approach by Cambridge Analytica [prior to November last year] and can confirm that it was rejected by WikiLeaks. — Julian Assange 🔹 (@JulianAssange) October 25, 2017

Following The Daily Beast's report, the Trump campaign issued a statement that insisted it relied on data compiled by the Republican National Committee, and made no mention of Assange or Cambridge Analytica.

"Once President Trump secured the nomination in 2016, one of the most important decisions we made was to partner with the Republican National Committee on data analytics," according to the statement. "Leading into the election, the RNC had invested in the most sophisticated data targeting program in modern American in history, which helped secure our victory in the fall."