Julian Assange praises outsider Donald Trump but slams Hillary Clinton

London: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has offered guarded praise of US president-elect Donald Trump arguing he “is not a DC insider” and could mean “opportunities for change in the United States: change for the worse and change for the better.” However, he was more critical of Hillary Clinton, claiming, “It is clear that she pursued this war [in Libya] as a staging effort for her Presidential bid.” In an interview, Assange described his feelings about the US election results as “mixed.”

In the week leading up to the elections, Wikileaks had published several emails connected to the Democratic party and the Clinton campaign. The releases were highly damaging to Ms Clinton, and US intelligence officials now believe they were hacked by Russia and passed to WikiLeaks to boost Mr Trump’s election win.