Former Ecuadorian President Rafeal Correa has admitted he knew WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was interfering with the 2016 US Presidential election from the safe harbor of his country's embassy in London.

The US government reached out to Ecuador and expressed concern that Assange was interfering in the 2016 election by publishing documents belonging to Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta that were obtained by Russian operatives, after which Ecuador cut his internet access.

'WikiLeaks' justification was that they were providing truthful information,' Correa told CNN. 'Sure, but [it] was just about Hillary Clinton. Not about [Donald] Trump. So, they were not saying all the truth. And not saying all the truth is called manipulation. And we are not going to allow that.'

Before Assange's internet access was revoked, however, extensive surveillance reports and security logs obtained by CNN reveal how he was able to take meetings with Russian officials, receive unfettered in-person deliveries and bolster his hardware over the course of many months leading up to the 2016 election.

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Former Ecuadorian President Rafeal Correa (right) has said he was aware WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (left) was interfering with the 2016 US Presidential election from the safe harbor of his country's embassy in London. Assange is pictured at left inside a prison van leaving Southwark Crown Court in London on May 1, after having been sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for breaching his bail conditions in 2012

'We did notice that he was interfering in the elections and we do not allow that because we have principles, very clear values, as we would not like anyone to interfere in our elections,' Correa told CNN. 'We are not going to allow that to happen with a foreign country and friend like the US.'

Correa, however, remained steadfast in his decision to grant asylum to Assange, who was seeking safe harbor from extradition to Sweden where he would have to face sexual assault allegations, which he has continuously denied.

Correa denied Ecuador was involved in any way with WikiLeaks' interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

'I am way closer to Hillary Clinton than Trump,' Correa told CNN. 'I know Hillary, I admire her. I was a student in the US, doing my doctorate when Bill Clinton was (president). Trump is an enemy of our migrants. Why the hell are we going to support him? None of this makes sense.'

Correa, however, remained steadfast in his decision to grant asylum to Assange, who was seeking safe harbor from extradition to Sweden where he would have to face sexual assault allegations, which he has continuously denied. Assange is pictured outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2017

It wasn't until Correa was replaced in power by his former Vice President Lenín Moreno that Assange's asylum was revoked in April (shown), leading the way for British authorities to forcibly remove him from the embassy over skipped bail in the United Kingdom

Assange, who is currently serving one year in a British prison for skipping bail in London, now awaits a lengthy battle over extradition to the US on charges related to procuring leaked documents from then-US Army intelligence officer Chelsea Manning in 2010. Assange is pictured gesturing from inside a British police vehicle on April 11 in London

However, it wasn't until Correa was replaced in power by his former Vice President Lenín Moreno that Assange's asylum was revoked in April, leading the way for British authorities to forcibly remove him from the embassy.

He was then arrested and is now behind bars in a UK prison.

Reports compiled by UC Global, a private Spanish security company which was hired by the Ecuadorian government showed Assange may have obtained hacked materials from Russian operatives through couriers delivering them directly to him at the embassy.

This possibility was raised by FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

The documents along with Ecuadorian Embassy security logs, authenticated by an Ecuadorian intelligence official, detail questionably timed meetings between Assange and Russian officials close in proximity to explosive WikiLeaks document dumps.

The documents also detail hardware and internet access upgrades afforded Assange by the Ecuadorian government ahead of the leaked emails from the Democratic National Convention and Podesta.

WikiLeaks and Assange have consistently reiterated that source of the aforementioned leaks 'is not the Russian government and it is not a state party,' in addition to Assange denying that he works for the Kremlin.

Assange, who is currently serving one year in a British prison for skipping bail in London, now awaits a lengthy battle over extradition to the US on charges related to procuring leaked documents from then-US Army intelligence officer Chelsea Manning in 2010.

Before he was yanked from the Embassy in April by British police, Assange had managed to develop a system of special privileges there that gave him authority to designate people who could enter without being searched.

He also had the authority to remove people's names from the visitors' log, the surveillance reports show.

In June of 2016, visitor logs showed that Assange met with Russians and people with ties to the Kremlin at least seven times.

Two of those meetings were with Russian national named Yana Maximova, in mid-day meetings in the embassy conference room.

Five of those meetings were with senior staffers from Russia Today (RT), a Kremlin-backed media organization with bureaus around the world.

Before he was yanked from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London (shown) in April by British police, Assange had managed to develop a system of special privileges there that gave him authority to designate people who could enter without being searched. He also had the authority to remove people's names from the visitors' log, the surveillance reports show. In June of 2016, visitor logs showed that Assange met with Russians and people with ties to the Kremlin at least seven times

Of the RT meetings, two were with the London bureau chief, Nikolay Bogachikhin. Surveillance reports showed Bogachikhin gave Assange a USB during one last-minute encounter with approval from the Ecuadorian ambassador.

Mueller's report found that online personas Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks that publicly claimed responsibility for hacking Democratic targets in Spring of 2016 and then transferred some of those files to WikiLeaks were actually created by hackers from Russia's military intelligence agency, known as the GRU.

The Mueller report also found that WikiLeaks contacted Russian online personas on July 6, seeking 'hillary related' data 'because the (Democratic National Convention) is approaching and she will solidify bernie supporters behind her after,' in reference to then-Democratic presidential primary candidate and Sen. Bernie Sanders.

On July 14, 2016, the same day that hackers posing at Guccifer 2.0 sent data to WikiLeaks under the subject 'big archive,' Assange met with German hackers Andrew Müller-Maguhn and Bernd Fix at the Ecuadorian Embassy for over four hours. security logs show.

Mueller's report had identified Müller-Maguhn as a possible Russian intermediary.

Müller-Maguhn, who showed up as a guest on RT on a show which Assange hosted in 2012, has denied that he ever had possession of the hacked materials that ended up posted on WikiLeaks.

On July 18 as the Republican National Convention kicked off in Cleveland, a guard at the Ecuadorian Embassy left his post to collect a delivery from a masked man wearing sunglasses and backpack, surveillance images showed.

The Mueller report found on that same day that Russian hackers were notified by WikiLeaks that files had been received that would be published soon.

More than 20,000 files from the Democratic National Committee were dumped by WikiLeaks on July 22, revealing a preference for Hillary Clinton over Sanders, leading to such turmoil at the upcoming Democratic Convention in Philadelphia that DNC chair, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, was forced to resign.

Surveillance documents along with Ecuadorian Embassy security logs, both obtained by CNN and authenticated by an Ecuadorian intelligence official, detail questionably timed meetings between Assange and Russian officials close in proximity to explosive WikiLeaks document dumps related to former Secretary of State and then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, which then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump applauded. Clinton and Trump are shown at right during a debate in 2016

Five days later, then-Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump said, 'Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,' in reference to emails sent through Clinton's private server that were not recovered during a probe into her handling of confidential communications.

It was within hours of that statement that Russians first tried to hack into Clinton's office.

Later, hacker 'DCLeaks' which the Mueller report identified as a pseudonym for Russian, contacted WikiLeaks, according to Mueller's report, and offered additional documents saying 'you won't be disappointed, I promise,' ahead of sending 50,000 emails from the inbox of Podesta.

Mueller estimated that data may have been transferred on September 19, a day wich security logs show Assange met with Müller-Maguhn and guards saw Assange updating computer cables in the Ecuadorian Embassy.

The Podesta emails began being leaked on October 7 and were published almost each day ahead of the election.

In at least two instances, RT published articles related to new WikiLeaks email batch drops before the site had even released them.

The implication there is that the Kremlin and WikiLeaks were coordinating efforts behind the scenes, which both sides have denied.