--- title: Julian Assange Says a 'Kid Could Have Hacked Podesta' Emails description: A teenager could have hacked into the emails of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said. canonical: https://time.com/4621653/julian-assange-wikileaks-emails/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-04T13:31:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T10:34:02.606Z article:section: Politics og:title: Julian Assange Says a 'Kid Could Have Hacked Podesta' Emails og:description: He also repeated his claim that Russia was not behind the DNC email hack og:url: https://time.com/4621653/julian-assange-wikileaks-emails/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1fa162d8629a116/6988b45d7cdbace899d56b03/julian-assange-wikileaks.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: UN Panel Rules That Wikileaks Founder Is Arbitrarily Detained og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Julian Assange Says a 'Kid Could Have Hacked Podesta' Emails twitter:description: He also repeated his claim that Russia was not behind the DNC email hack twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1fa162d8629a116/6988b45d7cdbace899d56b03/julian-assange-wikileaks.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Julian Assange Says a '14-Year-Old Kid Could Have Hacked Podesta' Emails > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Jan 4, 2017 1:31 PM UTC  Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy on Feb. 5, 2016 in London, England. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy on Feb. 5, 2016 in London, England. Carl Court—Getty Images  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Jan 4, 2017 1:31 PM UTC A technology-savvy teenager could have easily [hacked into the emails](http://time.com/4600177/election-hack-russia-hillary-clinton-donald-trump/) of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta, according to [WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange](http://time.com/4620806/julian-assange-russia-hack-fox-hannity/), who cited a handful of ways Podesta allegedly failed to safeguard his emails. In an [interview with Fox News](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01/04/wikileaks-assange-14-year-old-kid-could-have-hacked-podesta-emails.html) that aired Tuesday, Assange repeated his claim that Russia was not behind the email hack that plagued the 2016 U.S. presidential election and suggested it would have been easy to break into Podesta’s emails. “We published several … emails which show Podesta responding to a phishing email,” Assange said. “Podesta gave out that his password was the word ‘password.’ His own staff said this email that you’ve received, this is totally legitimate. So, this is something … a 14-year-old kid could have hacked Podesta that way.” Assange also said he was completely sure the emails did not come from Russia, despite information from U.S. intelligence officials that says Russian purposely interfered with the presidential election. The WikiLeaks founder said his source is neither the Russian government or a state party. President-elect Donald Trump quoted Assange’s teenager claim in a tweet and called the DNC “so careless.” > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/816620855958601730) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4621653/julian-assange-wikileaks-emails/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4621653/julian-assange-wikileaks-emails/"},"headline":"Julian Assange Says a '14-Year-Old Kid Could Have Hacked Podesta' Emails","datePublished":"2017-01-04T13:31:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T10:34:02.606Z","description":"He also repeated his claim that Russia was not behind the DNC email hack","url":"https://time.com/4621653/julian-assange-wikileaks-emails/","keywords":["onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1fa162d8629a116/6988b45d7cdbace899d56b03/julian-assange-wikileaks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf1fa162d8629a116/6988b45d7cdbace899d56b03/julian-assange-wikileaks.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"UN Panel Rules That Wikileaks Founder Is Arbitrarily Detained","caption":"Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy on Feb. 5, 2016 in London, England.","creditText":"Carl Court—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4621653/julian-assange-wikileaks-emails/","name":"Julian Assange Says a '14-Year-Old Kid Could Have Hacked Podesta' Emails"}}]}] ```