Donald Trump Jnr corresponded with WikiLeaks, who wanted Julian Assange as Australian ambassador to US
Trump Jnr at no point rebuffed WikiLeaks’ attempts at contact, even though the US intelligence community had already concluded that the organisation had published stolen documents and operated on behalf of Russian interests
Donald Trump Jnr corresponded with WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign – and the presidential son appears to have acted on requests made by the Kremlin-connected transparency organisation, according to a new report.
WikiLeaks’ requests included asking Trump Jnr to coax his father into telling Australia to appoint its founder, Julian Assange, ambassador to the US. The anti-secrecy site also tried to persuade Trump Jnr to share his father’s tax returns.
On election day itself, 8 November, WikiLeaks contacted Trump Jnr to make the extraordinary suggestion that should his father lose the contest, as was then widely expected, he should refuse to concede the race and instead turn the spotlight on the media for “rigging” the result.
As the investigation into Russian collusion continues to loom over the White House, Twitter messages obtained by The Atlantic on Monday reveal Trump Jnr communicated with WikiLeaks on a number of occasions, starting in September last year and spanning until at least July this year.
Roughly two months before Election Day, the WikiLeaks Twitter account initiated contact, informing the Trump son over a direct message that an anti-Trump PAC was about to launch a website called putintrump.org.
WikiLeaks does not keep such records and the Atlantic’s presentation is edited and clearly does not have the full context
“The PAC is a recycled pro-Iraq war PAC,” the WikiLeaks handle wrote. “We have guessed the password. It is ‘putintrump.’ See ‘About’ for who is behind it. Any comment?”