Former UK ambassador:: I picked up the Clinton emails from a Democrat whistleblower

[Razer]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4034038/Ex-British-ambassador-WikiLeaks-operative-claims-Russia-did-NOT-provide-Clinton-emails-handed-D-C-park-intermediary-disgusted-Democratic-insiders.html


A Wikileaks envoy today claims he personally received Clinton campaign
emails in Washington D.C. after they were leaked by 'disgusted'
whisteblowers - and not hacked by Russia.

Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan and a close
associate of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, told Dailymail.com that
he flew to Washington, D.C. for a clandestine hand-off with one of the
email sources in September.

'Neither of [the leaks] came from the Russians,' said Murray in an
interview with Dailymail.com on Tuesday. 'The source had legal access to
the information. The documents came from inside leaks, not hacks.'

His account contradicts directly the version of how thousands of
Democratic emails were published before the election being advanced by
U.S. intelligence.

Craig Murray (left), former British ambassador to Uzbekistan and a close
associate of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange (right), told the
Dailymail.com that he flew to Washington, D.C. for a clandestine
hand-off with one of the email sources in September

Murray is a controversial figure who was removed from his post as a
British ambassador amid allegations of misconduct. He was cleared of
those but left the diplomatic service in acrimony.

His links to Wikileaks are well known and while his account is likely to
be seen as both unprovable and possibly biased, it is also the first
intervention by Wikileaks since reports surfaced last week that the CIA
believed Russia hacked the Clinton emails to help hand the election to
Donald Trump.

Murray's claims about the origins of the Clinton campaign emails comes
as U.S. intelligence officials are increasingly confident that Russian
hackers infiltrated both the Democratic National Committee and the email
account of top Clinton aide John Podesta.

In Podesta's case, his account appeared to have been compromised through
a basic 'phishing' scheme, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

U.S. intelligence officials have reportedly told members of Congress
during classified briefings that they believe Russians passed the
documents on to Wikileaks as part of an influence operation to swing the
election in favor of Donald Trump.

But Murray insisted that the DNC and Podesta emails published by
Wikileaks did not come from the Russians, and were given to the
whistleblowing group by Americans who had authorized access to the
information.

'Neither of [the leaks] came from the Russians,'  Murray said. 'The
source had legal access to the information. The documents came from
inside leaks, not hacks.'

He said the leakers were motivated by 'disgust at the corruption of the
Clinton Foundation and the tilting of the primary election playing field
against Bernie Sanders.'

Murray said he retrieved the package from a source during a clandestine
meeting in a wooded area near American University, in northwest D.C. He
said the individual he met with was not the original person who obtained
the information, but an intermediary.

Murray claims he met with the person who passed the emails over in a
Washington, D.C. part near American University

His account cannot be independently verified but is in line with
previous statements by Wikileaks - which was the organization that
published the Podesta and DNC emails.

Wikileaks published the DNC messages in July and the Podesta messages in
October. The messages revealed efforts by some DNC officials to
undermine the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders, who was
running against Hillary Clinton.

Others revealed that Clinton aides were concerned about potential
conflicts and mismanagement at the Clinton Foundation.

Murray declined to say where the sources worked and how they had access
to the information, to shield their identities.

He suggested that Podesta's emails might be 'of legitimate interest to
the security services' in the U.S., due to his communications with Saudi
Arabia lobbyists and foreign officials.

Murray said he was speaking out due to claims from intelligence
officials that Wikileaks was given the documents by Russian hackers as
part of an effort to help Donald Trump win the U.S. presidential election.

'I don't understand why the CIA would say the information came from
Russian hackers when they must know that isn't true,' he said.
'Regardless of whether the Russians hacked into the DNC, the documents
Wikileaks published did not come from that.'

Murray was a vocal critic of human rights abuses in Uzbekistan while
serving as ambassador between 2002 and 2004, a stance that pitted him
against the UK Foreign Office.

He describes himself as a 'close associate' of Julian Assange and has
spoken out in support of the Wikileaks founder who has faced rape
allegations and is currently confined to the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Assange has similarly disputed that charges that Wikileaks received the
leaked emails from Russian sources.

'The Clinton camp has been able to project a neo-McCarthyist hysteria
that Russia is responsible for everything,' Assange told John Pilger
during an interview in November.

'Hillary Clinton has stated multiple times, falsely, that 17 US
intelligence agencies had assessed that Russia was the source of our
publications. That's false – we can say that the Russian government is
not the source.'

Murray suggested that John Podesta's emails might be 'of legitimate
interest to the security services' in the U.S., due to his
communications with Saudi Arabia lobbyists and foreign officials

The Washington Post reported last Friday that U.S. intelligence agencies
had 'identified individuals with connections to the Russian government
who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails.'

The paper said U.S. senators were presented with information tying
Russia to the leaks during a recent briefing by intelligence officials.

'It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia's goal
here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get
elected,' a senior U.S. official familiar with the briefing told the
Post. 'That's the consensus view.'

The paper said U.S. senators were presented with information tying
Russia to the leaks during a recent briefing by intelligence officials.

'It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia's goal
here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get
elected,' a senior U.S. official familiar with the briefing told the
Post. 'That's the consensus view.'

The Obama administration has been examining Russia's potential role in
trying to influence the presidential election. Officials said Russians
hacked the Republican National Committee, but did not release that
information in a deliberate effort to damage Clinton and protect Donald
Trump.

Several congressional committees are also looking into the suspected
Russian interference.

While there is a consensus on Capitol Hill that Russia hacked U.S.
political groups and officials, some Republicans say it's not clear
whether the motive was to try to swing the election or just to collect
intelligence.

'Now whether they intended to interfere to the degree that they were
trying to elect a certain candidate, I think that's the subject of
investigation,' said Sen. John McCain on CBS Face the Nation. 'But facts
are stubborn things, they did hack into this campaign.'

President elect Donald Trump raised doubts about the reports and said
this was an 'excuse' by Democrats to explain Clinton's November loss.

'It's just another excuse. I don't believe it,' said Trump on Fox News
Sunday.

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