A man who calls himself a WikiLeaks operative is claiming “inside leaks,” not Russian hackers, are responsible for the release of emails that embarrassed Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee during the presidential race.
Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan who was fired amid misconduct allegations, said he was involved in the email leaking operation. Murray claimed he personally received some of the emails from “disgusted” Democratic whistleblowers during a secret hand-off in Washington.
Thousands of emails from the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, the chairman of Clinton’s presidential campaign, were released during the campaign.
“Neither of [the leaks] came from the Russians,” Murray told DailyMail.com in a story published Wednesday. “The source had legal access to the information. The documents came from inside leaks, not hacks.”
He also said that those behind the email leaks were motivated by “disgust at the corruption of the Clinton Foundation and the tilting of the primary election playing field against Bernie Sanders.”
Murray’s statements, which the Daily Mail was unable to verify, comes as U.S. intelligence officials have told lawmakers they believe Russian hackers gained access to the accounts and provided emails to WikiLeaks to hurt Clinton and help Donald Trump.
Murray, who says he is close to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, said he retrieved a package containing the emails in a wooded area in northwest Washington near American University.
The Daily Mail is the latest publication to run with a story based solely on Murray’s unverified claims. On Nov. 2, the Kremlin-controlled Sputnik news agency ran an “exclusive” touting Murray’s claims. As in the Daily Mail report, Sputnik was unable to verify any of Murray’s claims.
