WikiLeaks Doesn't Have Dirt on Donald Trump, Founder Says

— -- Wikileaks founder Julian Assange today defended the anti-secrecy organization against claims that it has been trying to torpedo Hillary Clinton's presidential bid, saying it simply doesn't have good enough information on Donald Trump or the other presidential candidates to expose them in the same way.

"We cannot publish what we do not have. To date, we have not received information on Donald Trump's campaign, or Jill Stein's campaign, or Gary Johnson's campaign or any of the other candidates that [fulfills] our stated editorial criteria," Assange said in a statement posted on WikiLeaks' website.

Beginning months ago, WikiLeaks has published tens of thousands of emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee and from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, leading to some embarrassing and controversial revelations. But the site has released virtually nothing on any of Clinton's challengers.

Critics, especially Clinton staffers and supporters, have taken the one-sided digital dumps as evidence that Assange, and by extension WikiLeaks, had abandoned pretense of neutrality and was bent on trying to keep Clinton out of the White House -- and perhaps working with the Russian government to do so.

The Clinton campaign, which has declined to verify the authenticity of the Podesta emails, blasted Assange personally as someone who has "made no secret of his desire to damage Hillary Clinton."

Assange previously denied the alleged connection to the Russian government and today acknowledged that WikiLeaks' publications have been uneven. But he said that was done "not due to a personal desire to influence the outcome of the election."

"No-one disputes the public importance of these publications. It would be unconscionable for WikiLeaks to withhold such an archive from the public during an election," Assange said.