"Everyone has known for a long time that there is no state involved in this release of emails. That's what Assange has always said. Of course, they now want to use Assange as a political badge to confirm this," Andy Vermaut, a Belgian human rights activist said.
"I understand that Julian Assange wants to remain impartial and that journalism also has the right to protect his sources. Whatever it takes. I believe Julian Assange never intended to be involved in political games."
Asa Winstanley, an investigative journalist, thinks that like any good journalist, Julian Assange has protected his sources.
"It's right he should make no comment on where his leaks come from. For the Trump Administration, to make this offer amounts to a veiled threat. The US should drop all these politicised charges against Assange and the UK should end its malicious and vindictive persecution of this brave publisher."
DNC Leaks
Julian Assange was indicted by a US court on 18 felony charges, mostly related to alleged violations of the Espionage Act, after he leaked classified cables that exposed US transgressions during the Iraq and Afghan wars. Those emails have been claimed by Trump's opponents from the Democratic party to have been ''stolen by Russians'', which both Donald Trump and Russia have repeatedly dismissed.
Likewise, twice-failed US presidential candidate Hilary Clinton has repeatedly blasted Assange as an "instrument of Russian intelligence", claiming that her 2016 bid for presidency had been "stolen" from her following the release of compromising email content.
In 2016, WikiLeaks released a batch of documents from the Democratic National Committee leadership and Clinton's campaign leadership, including how it rigged the primary elections in Clinton's favour and obtained debate questions for the candidate before her televised arguments with Trump. According to the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, the documents that are still pending publication ''would be enough to indict Clinton", as he said previously via video link from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
If convicted, Assange could face up to 175 in US prison.
