Apparent effort to get Trump campaign to spread WikiLeaks documents
Donald Trump Jr. corresponded with WikiLeaks during the 2016 presidential campaign, it was revealed on Monday.
Trump Jr. was repeatedly contacted by the shadowy organization in an attempt to have Trump help spread WikiLeaks documents across the web, according to The Atlantic magazine.
“Hiya, it’d be great if you guys could comment on/push this story,” WikiLeaks wrote to Trump Jr. on Oct. 3, 2016.
Attached to the tweet was a link to a story that claimed Hillary Clinton wanted to “drone” WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
“Already did that earlier today,” Trump Jr. responded. “It’s amazing what she can get away with.”
The story about Clinton has not been confirmed. Trump Jr. then followed up with a question about an upcoming leak from the organization.
“What’s behind this Wednesday leak I keep reading about?” he wrote.
The organization did not respond.
On Oct. 12, WikiLeaks wrote Trump Jr. saying “Strongly suggest your dad tweets this link if he mentions us.”
The site provided a link to a database of stolen documents and added, ““Btw we just released Podesta Emails Part 4.”
On October 14, 2016, Trump Jr. tweeted the link that WikiLeaks had sent him.
“For those who have the time to read about all the corruption and hypocrisy all the @wikileaks emails are right here: http://wlsearch.tk/,” he wrote.
Donald Trump Jr.’s lawyer told the magazine that he and his client have voluntarily handed over thousands of documents to congressional committees.
“Putting aside the question as to why or by whom such documents, provided to Congress under promises of confidentiality, have been selectively leaked, we can say with confidence that we have no concerns about these documents and any questions raised about them have been easily answered in the appropriate forum,” said the lawyer, Alan Futerfas.
