Clinton campaign slams WikiLeaks as 'Russian propaganda' following latest email dump

Hillary Clinton's campaign has hit back at WikiLeaks following the release of another set of hacked emails from the account of its chairman John Podesta, accusing the site of being a "propaganda arm of the Russian government" seeking to elect Republican rival Donald Trump. This week, the whisteblowing outfit disclosed yet another large trove of allegedly hacked emails from Podesta's personal email account, offering a peek into the inner workings of the Democratic candidate's camp.

So far, the disclosures have included supposed excerpts of Clinton's speeches to private banks, a secret dossier of "hits" to use against to against presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on key issues, her aides' strategies to control her image and an exchange where longtime Bill Clinton aide Doug Band calls Chelsea Clinton a spoiled brat.

Clinton's campaign has not verified or denied the authenticity of the emails.

On Monday, Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Clinton's campaign fired off a series of tweets accusing WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, of working on behalf of the Russian government to help elect rival candidate Donald Trump.

"You are no media organisation," Fallon tweeted at Wikileaks. "You are a propaganda arm of the Russian government, running interference for their pet candidate, Trump."

Fallon also called on journalists reporting about the leaks to "at least state they are [a] product of illegal hack by a foreign govt". He also questioned why WikiLeaks has apparently failed to look into Trump's tax returns thus far.

"How about probing possibility of Trump associates directly coordinating with Russia and WikiLeaks? That is the thing that should cause chills," he tweeted.

In August, Assange claimed that the organisation was "working on" obtaining Trump's undisclosed tax returns without providing any specific details. However, the site later backtracked saying the Australian national's comment was just a joke.

Fallon's comments come just days after the US government formally accused Russia of hacking into the computers of Democratic National Committee (DNC) and other political organisations, and attempting to interfere in the 2016 elections.

Russia dismissed the hacking accusations as a US attempt to create "unprecedented anti-Russian hysteria". Russian president Vladimir Putin previously called the hack a public service, but denied the Kremlin's involvement in the cyberattacks.

After Trump adviser Jason Miller tweeted a link to the recently published Podesta emails page saying, "And here...we...go," Clinton's campaign responded to the leak by criticising Trump's campaign for "cheering on a release today engineered by Vladimir Putin".

"It is absolutely disgraceful that the Trump campaign is cheering on a release today engineered by Vladimir Putin to interfere in this election, and this comes after Donald Trump encouraged more espionage over the summer and continued to deny the hack even happened at Sunday's debate," Clinton campaign spokesman Glen Caplin said in a statement. "It should concern every American that Russia is willing to engage in such hostile acts in order to help Donald Trump become President of the United States."

WikiLeaks has promised more leaks are on the way in the build-up to the 8 November election.

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign has claimed that the recently released hacked emails show that Clinton's camp was in "collusion" with the US Department of Justice.

"The DOJ fed information to the Clinton campaign about the email investigation so that the campaign could be prepared to cover up for her crimes," Trump said at a rally in Panama City. "This is collusion and corruption of the highest order and is one more reason I will ask my attorney general... to appoint a special prosecutor.

"You see so much from the WikiLeaks, this is so much."