--- title: WikiLeaks: Julian Assange Dismisses Russia Hacking Report description: Julian Assange dismissed the U.S. intelligence community's report on Russia's hacking in the 2016 presidential election as a "press release" canonical: https://time.com/4628558/wikileaks-julian-assange-russia-election-hack-donald-trump/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-09T15:26:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:37:13.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Julian Assange Dismissed the Russia Hacking Report as a 'Press Release' og:description: Julian Assange dismissed the U.S. intelligence community's report on Russia's hacking in the 2016 presidential election as a "press release" og:url: https://time.com/4628558/wikileaks-julian-assange-russia-election-hack-donald-trump/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ee4e5c03d7d6707/6988b4c3e20a873946a93abf/gettyimages-508572172.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: UN Panel Rules That Wikileaks Founder Is Arbitrarily Detained og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Julian Assange Dismissed the Russia Hacking Report as a 'Press Release' twitter:description: Julian Assange dismissed the U.S. intelligence community's report on Russia's hacking in the 2016 presidential election as a "press release" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ee4e5c03d7d6707/6988b4c3e20a873946a93abf/gettyimages-508572172.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Founder of WikiLeaks Just Dismissed the Russia Hacking Report as a 'Press Release' by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jan 9, 2017 3:26 PM UTC  Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy where he continues to seek asylum following an extradition request from Sweden in 2012, on February 5, 2016 in London, England. Carl Court—Getty Images Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy where he continues to seek asylum following an extradition request from Sweden in 2012, on February 5, 2016 in London, England. Carl Court—Getty ImagesCarl Court—Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jan 9, 2017 3:26 PM UTC Wikileaks founder [Julian Assange](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2066367%5F2066369%5F2066107,00.html) dismissed [the U.S. intelligence community’s report](http://time.com/4619697/obama-russia-sanctions-election-hacking/) on Russia’s [hacking](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2016-hackers-runner-up/?iid=sr-link1) in the 2016 presidential election as a “press release” on Monday, calling it politically motivated and damaging to the intelligence community’s reputation. “It is not an intelligence report,” Assange said during a news conference. “This is a press release. It was clearly put out for political purposes.” Assange was particularly critical of the damning report’s conclusion that the Russian hackers showed a preference for President-elect [Donald Trump](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2016-donald-trump/) amid its efforts to [damage the reputation of ](http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/us/politics/russia-hack-report.html)Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The report found no evidence of Russian actors, who it said were directed by President Vladimir Putin, actually tampering with ballots cast during the election, though the intelligence community is confident the hack and release of emails from Democratic officials was carried out in order to influence the election. The intelligence community also concluded emails were released to WikiLeaks in an effort to gain more attention. Assange on Monday denied that the leaks came from Russia. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4628558/wikileaks-julian-assange-russia-election-hack-donald-trump/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4628558/wikileaks-julian-assange-russia-election-hack-donald-trump/"},"headline":"The Founder of WikiLeaks Just Dismissed the Russia Hacking Report as a 'Press Release'","datePublished":"2017-01-09T15:26:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:37:13.000Z","description":"The founder of WikiLeaks said the report was politically motivated","url":"https://time.com/4628558/wikileaks-julian-assange-russia-election-hack-donald-trump/","keywords":["intelligence","russia","2016 Election topic","Hacking","WikiLeaks","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ee4e5c03d7d6707/6988b4c3e20a873946a93abf/gettyimages-508572172.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ee4e5c03d7d6707/6988b4c3e20a873946a93abf/gettyimages-508572172.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":"UN Panel Rules That Wikileaks Founder Is Arbitrarily Detained","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":"/tag/intelligence/","name":"intelligence"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4628558/wikileaks-julian-assange-russia-election-hack-donald-trump/","name":"The Founder of WikiLeaks Just Dismissed the Russia Hacking Report as a 'Press Release'"}}]}] ```