Culture

“I’m Not An Idiot”: Julian Assange Went Head To Head With Waleed Aly On ‘The Project’ Last Night

Waleed grilled the Wikileaks founder on everything from his relationship to Russia to his feelings about Hillary Clinton.

by Tom Clift  25 January 2017

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Last night, for reasons best known to him, Julian Assange was a guest on The Project. Appearing via video conference from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, the Wikileaks founder spoke to Waleed Aly about a variety of topics, from the impending release of whistleblower Chelsea Manning, to his contentious role in leaking emails related to the presidential election. He also plugged his upcoming speaking tour, because you gotta make that bank.

Probably the biggest talking point was Assange’s bold promise, made in September last year, to turn himself over to US authorities on the condition that Chelsea Manning be granted clemency. Thing is, Chelsea Manning has been granted clemency. Whoops!

Asked by Aly whether he would follow through on his offer, Assange replied that any extradition would be contingent on a deal with the US Department of Justice. Alleging that Manning’s clemency deal was designed to “make life hard” for him, Assange criticised the Obama administration for not releasing the whistleblower sooner and insisted that there was “no quid pro quo.”

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“In the end, Barack Obama – wanting, I guess, to look tough – said that my offer had nothing to do with Chelsea Manning being granted clemency,” he said.

When asked why he was seemingly changing the terms of his offer, Assange replied “because I’m not a complete idiot.”

“Saying I am willing to accept extradition doesn’t mean I am saying that I am willing to be a complete idiot and throw my lawyers away, and so on. We are going to have a discussion with the DOJ about what that looks like. The ball is in their court.”

Also up for discussion was Wikileak’s decision to publish compromising emails between Hillary Clinton and her presidential campaign chairman that may have played a role in her defeat at the tiny hands of Donald Trump. US intelligence officials believe that Russia may have been involved with the leak.

“I can state, and have stated clearly, that our source is not a member of the Russian government,” Assange told Aly. “I am not saying anything else other than what we have said, because we can’t play 20 questions about our sources.”

Asked whether Wikileaks cared about the motives of their sources, Assange replied that “it can vary”, but that it was “not a question for us to talk about publicly.”

Finally, Aly asked Assange about his view of Hillary Clinton. “Is it personal with you and her?”

“No, it’s not,” replied Assange. “Actually, I think she’s a bit like me in some ways. She’s a bit wonkish. She’s a little bit awkward. She likes a fight. She keeps going. So I think I would rather get along with her. On the other hand, there is something in particular that you can’t quite get past. It doesn’t matter what the personality is like, if someone is a war criminal.”

You can watch an abridged version of the interview below, or the full length conversation here.