US Secretary of State John Kerry has instructed Ecuador to restrain Julian Assange from releasing documents related to US Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton, Wikileaks revealed Tuesday.
"Multiple US official tell us John Kerry asked Ecuador to stop Assange from publishing Clinton docs during FARC peace negotiations," WikiLeaks said on Twitter.
Ecuador cut off Asange’s internet access Saturday following the whistle blowing website that published Clinton’s speeches at Goldman Sachs, according to WikiLeaks on Twitter. "The John Kerry private meeting with Ecuador was made on the sidelines of the negotiations which took place principally on Sep 26 in Colombia," WikiLeaks added.
However, the Ecuador government has admitted to severing the internet connection of WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange to prevent him from interfering in the presidential election.
“The Government of Ecuador respects the principle of non-intervention in the affairs of other countries; it does not interfere in electoral processes in progress or support a candidate in particular,” The government said in a statement. Ecuador has granted asylum to Assange in its London Embassy for years.
Since the start of October, Wikileaks has released over 17,000 emails discussing Clinton's campaign strategies, allegedly obtained from a hacked account of Clinton's campaign chair John Podesta.
Assange has been residing in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012 to not be extradited to Sweden, where he was accused of rape after WikiLeaks begun to release documents in its possession.