Carl Court/Getty Images(LONDON) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange defended on Thursday his organization’s decision to publish what he alleges are more than 8,000 documents detailing the CIA’s hacking arsenal, adding that he would give tech companies early access to the next tranche of documents so that they can develop fixes before vulnerabilities in consumer technologies are made public.

Assange also reiterated allegations made in Wednesday’s publications that the U.S. consulate in Frankfurt, Germany served as a base for U.S. cyber warriors.

“The U.S. consulate in Frankfurt is a CIA hacker base. People go there from the central intelligence agency,” Assange said. “They operate out of that hacker base to attack targets wihtin europe, within africa and within the Middle East.”

The CIA has not confirmed the authenticity of the documents, but officials tell ABC News that they appear authentic.

Questions have been raised in recent months over the role that WikiLeaks played in Russian efforts to undermine the 2016 U.S. election.

In January, the U.S. intelligence community concluded that hackers associated with Russian intelligence agencies had stolen documents from U.S. political institutions — including the Democratic National Committee — and given them to WikiLeaks, who later published them.

In a January interview with Fox News, Assange said, “We can say — we have said repeatedly — over the last two months that our source is not the Russian government and it is not a state party.”

The press conference was streamed live on Facebook and Periscope.

Assange was speaking from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he has lived since 2012.

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