Donald Trump used his Twitter megaphone on Wednesday to ratchet up the debat over WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's claim that Russia's government was not involved in hacking Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's Gmail account.

In a tweet, the president-elect repeated Assange's claim that a teenage hacker could have done the job just as easily.

And he contended that the Democratic National Committee's own lax IT security, not a foreign cyber attack, was the root cause of the party's embarrassment after a separate hack struck its computer network.

'Julian Assange said "a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta" - why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!' he wrote on Twitter – after misspelling Assange's name as 'Assuage,' deleting it and then posting a second draft.

House Speaker Paul Ryan later fired back, saying on the Hugh Hewitt radio show that Assange 'is a sycophant for Russia. He leaks, he steals data and compromises national security.'

Donald Trump backed Julian Assange's insistence that Russia was not behind election-year hacks of Democrats' computers and e mails

The president-elect repeated the WikiLeaks founder's claim that 'a 14 year old' could have breached Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's Gmail account

Assange reiterated in a Fox news interview Tuesday that Russian actors did not give him the leaked Podesta emails

The whistle-blowing WikiLeaks website published Podesta's emails, delivering a daily dose of embarrassment to Clinton in the campaign's final days.

In an interview, Assange revealed Podesta's password was 'password' and that he had responded to phishing emails.

The Wikileaks founder said he was 1,000 percent confident the Russians did not hack the Clinton campaign, adding Barack Obama was 'trying to delegitimize the Trump administration.'

'A 14-year-old kid could have hacked Podesta that way,' Assange told Sean Hannity on the Fox News Channel.

But a State Department spokesman said Tuesday on CNN that we are a hundred per cent certain' that Russia was behind it all.

John Kirby insisted there was 'no question' about Moscow's involvement.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence (left) said on Capitol Hill that recent intelligence failures haven't inspired Trump's confidence in the American government's dirt-diggers

Trump tweeted a jab at the Democratic National Committee on Wednesday morning, blaming the party's lax IT security – not Russia – for its own cyber attack

Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt said Wednesday morning that he couldn't support Assange's contentions, and Trump shouldn't either.

'The guy is a creep. He's wanted on a rape in Sweden. I don't trust a word he says. He is a Russian front,' Hewitt said.

'Anyone who believes anything Julian Assange says, you just have to ask yourself: When are you going to wake up to the fact he's a very bad guy?

He said that Trump 'does not need to elevate and in any way rely upon a creep like Assange.'

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan agreed.

'Hopefully he'll get up to speed on what has been happening and what Russia has or has not done, and he'll get better informed on that,' he said of Trump.

Ryan added his belief that Assange 'is a sycophant for Russia. He leaks, he steals data and compromises national security.'

But the president-elect continues to doubt the assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community, made up of portions of 17 different agencies.

Vice president-elect Mike Pence said Wednesday that Trump formed his view based on 'intelligence failures of recent years.'

'I think that the president-elect has expressed his very sincere and healthy American skepticism about intelligence conclusions,' Pence told reporters during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol.

Separately, Trump launched a more direct attack on Twitter in the Democratic National Committee's direction.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (center) said in a radio interview that Julia Assange 'is a sycophant for Russia. He leaks, he steals data and compromises national security'

'Somebody hacked the DNC but why did they not have "hacking defense" like the RNC has and why have they not responded to the terrible things they did and said (like giving the questions to the debate to H),' he wrote in a pair of tweets.

'A total double standard! Media, as usual, gave them a pass.'

Trump has never let go of one series of Podesta emails in which CNN commentator Donna Brazile – who was also a party official – appeared to give the DNC an advance copy of a question that would be asked in a town hall broadcast.

The party is believed to have given the information to the Clinton camp in order to give the former secretary of state an advantage over her primary rival Bernie Sanders.

Trump's reference to lax IT security at the DNC refers to a memo circulated last week by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security – a how-to manual telling the party headquarters how to defend itself against phishing emails and malware attacks.

Assange, whose interview with Sean Hannity aired on Fox News Tuesday, reiterated his claims Tuesday night that Russia was not the source of the hacks whose product he published .

He told Hannity 'with a thousand per cent' confidence that the Russian government was not responsible.

Democrats have claimed the hacks were a deliberate attempt to undermine Clinton's campaign and ensure Trump's election on Nov. 8.

Last week President Barack Obama expelled 35 Russians over election-year hacking allegations

Last week President Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats from the U.S. in retaliation. Moscow denies any involvement in election-year hacking.

The Russian personnel were accused of 'acting in a manner inconsistent with their diplomatic status' – a euphemism for spying.

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.