Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman has claimed the FBI is investigating whether Russian hackers were behind a cyber-attack on his private email.
John Podesta told reporters on the campaign trail the enquiry is part of a wider investigation into alleged Russian attempts to disrupt next month’s presidential elections – in particular targeting the Democratic Party.
"I've been involved in politics for nearly five decades," he said, according to the BBC.
"This definitely is the first campaign that I've been involved with in which I've had to tangle with Russian intelligence agencies, who seem to be doing everything they can on behalf of our opponent."
He’s also suggested that the Trump campaign may have been given advanced warning of the breach – something officials on the Republican side have denied. Also, Podesta claimed Wikileaks founder Julian Assange had been in contact with Trump adviser Roger Stone – again something denied by the Republicans.
The Clinton campaign has also been quick to cast doubt on the authenticity of any leaked emails, claiming that documents released by Wikileaks are often doctored or fabricated.
The revelations come shortly after Wikileaks published a ‘treasure trove’ of hacked emails coming from Democratic officials.
Just last week the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Election Security claimed in a joint statement that Russia is behind the ‘Guccifer 2.0’ hacks of Democrat officials’ emails.
It’s believed the intention is to destabilize the campaign so that, whoever wins, there will be question marks over their legitimacy – weakening their position on the world stage.
There has also been a widespread attempt to infiltrate state-level election authorities’ IT systems, although so far Washington has been reluctant to attribute this to the Kremlin.
The DHS has set-up a dedicated Election Infrastructure Cybersecurity Working Group to improve cybersecurity in this area, urging local authorities to seek help.