Donald Trump, Jr. Messaged With WikiLeaks During 2016 Campaign

Donald Trump Jr. has confirmed corresponding with WikiLeaks before the 2016 presidential election in a series of posts on Twitter after a report by The Atlantic detailing the interchange was published.

Donald Trump’s eldest son communicated with WikiLeaks via direct message on Twitter from September 2016 until July 2017, the messages were given to congressional investigators as part of its probe into Russian meddling during the election. Federal officials believe WikiLeaks published materiel given to it by Russian hackers.

This represents the second instance of which Don Jr. seemed to eager for damaging information of then-rival Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election after it was discovered that he had met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer – in a meeting he personally set up – who promised something similar in June 2016. The messages, which were turned over to congress as part of its investigation into the extent of Russian-meddling during the 2016 campaign, were later published on Twitter by Don Jr. himself in an effort to reassert his innocence.

“We can say with confidence that we have no concerns about these documents and any questions about them have been easily answered in the appropriate forum,” said Allen Futerfas, Trump Jr.’s attorney.

The United States intelligence community is in near-universal agreement that Russian-agents used WikiLeaks to distribute information hacked from U.S. officials in an effort to sway the election in Trump’s favor. Though the information contained in the direct messages exchanged between Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks may not themselves be an admission of guilt, it does help to piece together the broader picture linking the organization to the Russian effort to meddle in the U.S. election.

In one exchange initiated by WikiLeaks and to which it seems Don Jr. never replied, the organization presents Trump Jr. with the prospect of leaking “one or more of your father’s tax returns,” noting that it would “dramatically improve the perception of [WikiLeaks] impartiality.”

In another exchange, this time initiated by Don Jr. himself he asks, “what’s behind this Wednesdays leak I keep hearing about?”

WikiLeaks responded days later with a link to a cache of stolen DNC emails where it thanked Don Jr. and his dad for promoting its publication and suggested then-candidate Trump, “tweet[s] this link,” which would direct his followers to the stolen emails so that they could review the materials themselves. Trump later did.

This creates yet another problem for what seems like a problem-stricken administration as Vice President Mike Pence had previously denied the allegations that the Trump campaign had any contact with the organization.

The press secretary for Pence, Alyssa Farah, released a statement late Monday denying that the Vice President had known about the previously undisclosed contact between the Trump Campaign and WikiLeaks, “The Vice President was never aware of anyone associated with the campaign being in contact with WikiLeaks,” Farah said, “he first learned of this news from a public report earlier tonight.”

Though it is still unclear just how the Mueller probe will use this new information it does follow a similar pattern of Trump official’s involved in the campaign being less-than-truthful when it comes to disclosing information surrounding meetings and contacts with Russian linked sources.

Article by Eric Silverman