WikiLeaks claims that a sham US firm with Clinton ties is trying to smear Julian Assange

The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks is claiming that an elaborate and convoluted smear campaign has targeted the group’s founder, Julian Assange, to paint him as a paedophile and Russian client.

WikiLeaks said the supposed smear efforts, which it’s outlined in tweets and a series of documents over the past two days, include a sham offer from the Russian government to pay Assange US$1 million to promote a women’s dating site and a separate scheme to link Assange to a criminal case in the Bahamas.

The assertions are the latest twist in events that have kept Assange and WikiLeaks at centre stage of the US presidential campaign. That included mentions from both candidates in Wednesday’s final presidential debate.

The smears come as WikiLeaks releases tens thousands of emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee and from the personal email account of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta.

Assange, an Australian who has been holed up in Ecuador’s embassy in London for more than four years, had been accelerating the release of the hacked material this month in a drive to embarrass Clinton. Ecuador cut his internet connection Saturday, saying it did not want him interfering in US domestic affairs.