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Julian Assange On Clinton Email Scandal: 'Our Source Is Not A Member Of The Russian Government'

But the Wikileaks founder would not rule out whether the Russian government had some involvement.
'I can state clearly, and have stated clearly, that our source is not a member of the Russian Government.'
Channel Ten
'I can state clearly, and have stated clearly, that our source is not a member of the Russian Government.'

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has firmly denied that his source -- who provided emails hacked from the Clinton campaign -- was a member of the Russian government.

Appearing on The Project on Tuesday night, Assange was adamant his source was not from the Russian government, but would not say whether the Russian government were involved at any stage of retrieving the emails.

"I can state clearly, and have stated clearly, that our source is not a member of the Russian Government," Assange said on the program.

When pressed by Project co-host Waleed Aly on whether the Russian government were involved at some stage, Assange said "you are shifting the goal posts".

"I am not saying anything else other than what we have said because we can't play 20 questions about our sources. We can't eliminate this or that."

Assange said his legal team are engaging in conversations with the U.S Department of Justice about being extradited to the U.S.

This comes after former President Barack Obama commuted the sentence of U.S soldier Chelsea Manning, who leaked military documents to Wikileaks. Manning will be freed in May.

"We had a major strategic victory in liberating Chelsea Manning, the most significant alleged whistleblower in the last 10 years," Assange said on Tuesday night.

"Of course, saying I'm willing to accept extradition doesn't mean I'm saying that I'm willing to be a complete idiot and throw all my lawyers away and so on. We are going to have a discussion with the DOJ about what that looks like. The ball is in their court."

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