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CNN apologizes to Wikileaks after threatening to sue over commentator calling Assange a pedophile
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange stands on the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy to addresses waiting supporters and media in London, Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. A U.N. human rights panel says WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been squirreled away inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to avoid questioning by Swedish authorities about sexual misconduct allegations, has been "arbitrarily detained" by Britain and Sweden since December 2010. The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said his detention should end and he should be entitled to compensation. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

CNN apologizes to Wikileaks after threatening to sue over commentator calling Assange a pedophile

During a segment during CNN's New Day, former CIA official Philip Mudd made the claim that Wikileaks editor Julian Assange was a “pedophile who lives in the Ecuadorian embassy in London,” during discussion about the Russian's involvement of the hacking of the Democratic National Committee.

Here's the clip:

According to McClatchyDC, the accusation comes from a dating website known as toddandclare.com, which allegedly sprung a plot against Assange as he was public enemy number one with the 2016 Clinton campaign.

And they’ve done it at a time when WikiLeaks has become a routine target of Democratic politicians who portray Assange as a stooge of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his reported efforts to disrupt the U.S. election.

One part of toddandclare’s two-pronged campaign put a megaphone to unproven charges that Assange made contact with a young Canadian girl in the Bahamas through the internet with the intention of molesting her. The second part sought to entangle him in a plan to receive $1 million from the Russian government.

Due to this, Wikileaks made a threat via Twitter to sue CNN for the comment unless "within 48 hours they air a one hour expose of the plot."

In reaction, CNN deleted the tweet containing the video, and posted an apology from the New Day Twitter account.

If they hoped this apology would appease Wikileaks, however, CNN was sadly mistaken. Coming back with a response, a Wikileaks secondary Twitter account called the Wikileaks Task force posted that CNN made the apology, but in retracting the allegation of pedophilia made "another two."

The account also makes reference to the website, justice4assange.com, where questions about Assange's dealings with the two Swedish women accusing him of sexual assault are answered, and asserts that the accusations weren't even made by the two women.

 

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