Why on Earth would a big name hacker send journalists a password that gained access to a special part of dcleaks.com?
Hackers hate journalists and would never do them a favor. If you have something you want to show it off. Not a random journalist!
The emails speak for themselves and would easily attract readers without the need for a journalist to promote it.
This sounds like a cover story to explain why "journalists" had the passwords in the first place.