Donald Trump, Jr. releases correspondence with Wikileaks

UPI ^ | 11/13/17 | Ray Downs

[markomalley]

Donald Trump, Jr. released correspondence he had with Wikileaks after reports published Monday revealed he communicated with the organization during and after the 2016 presidential election.

The Atlantic first reported the president's son communicated with Wikileaks via direct messages on Twitter between September 2016 and July 2017. Shortly after ABC News and CBS News confirmed the report, Trump, Jr. tweeted copies of the emails cited in the Atlantic story.

"Here is the entire chain of messages with @wikileaks (with my whopping 3 responses) which one of the congressional committees has chosen to selectively leak. How ironic!" Trump, Jr. wrote.

The messages indicate Wikileaks contacted Trump, Jr. on Sept. 20, 2016, and informed him about putintrump.org, an anti-Trump site they said was about to launch.

"The PAC is a recycled pro-Iraq war PAC," Wikileaks wrote. "We have guessed the password. It is 'putintrump.' See 'About' for who is behind it. Any comments?"

The Atlantic reported Rob Glaser, a tech entrepreneur founded the site and Progress for USA Political Action Committee funded it.

The next day, Trump, Jr. responded: "Off the record I don't know who that is, but I'll ask around. Thanks."

Wikileaks sent several other messages to Trump, Jr., but according to the Atlantic and the email he released, he replied twice more.

On Oct. 3, 2016, Wikileaks asked Trump, Jr. to push a story about Hillary Clinton suggesting the U.S. government "just drone" Julian Assange.

"Already did that earlier today," Trump Jr. wrote. "It's amazing what she can get away with."

A few minutes later, Trump, Jr. asked about a leak about Clinton that Trump political operative Roger Stone said was coming soon from Wikileaks.

Wikileaks did not respond.

After that, Trump, Jr. did not respond again to Wikileaks, but the organization wrote several times to Trump, Jr., at one point asking for copies of Trump's tax returns.

Wikileaks said there were several reasons leaking the tax returns would benefit the Trump campaign, including improving "the perception of our impartiality."

"That means that the vast amount of stuff that we are publishing on Clinton will have much higher impact, because it won't be perceived as coming from a 'pro-Trump' 'pro-Russia' source," Wikileaks wrote, adding that Trump, Jr. should also send "any other negative stuff (documents, recordings) that you think has a decent chance of coming out. Let us put it out."

On Twitter, Assange said he could not confirm the correspondence and said The Atlantic story was "edited and clearly does not have the full context," but he praised his organization's "chutzpah" for attempting to convince Trump, Jr. to release Trump's tax returns.

"WikiLeaks appears to beguile some people into transparency by convincing them that it is in their interest," Assange wrote.

Alan Futerfas, Trump Jr.'s lawyer said in a statement to ABC News that his client has cooperated with the congressional committee investigations into alleged meddling into the 2016 presidential election.

"Over the last several months, we have worked cooperatively with each of the committees and have voluntarily turned over thousands of documents in response to their requests," Futerfas wrote. "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."

[markomalley]

Here are the messages:

[Sarah Barracuda]

Donald Trump Jr is a good man..he has NOTHING to hide and releases EVERYTHING..you can bet that a-hole Mueller is the one that leaked this “info” to begin with..but Trump Jr showed that he has nothing to hide and released ALL of the PM’s..still waiting for Hillary Clinton to release those emails..yeah yeah I know, when piggies fly

[TigersEye]

Clearly the worst case of treason since Hannibal crossed the Delaware in an elephant skin coracle!

[Major Matt Mason]

Don't forget, it was around this time that Assange "disappeared" from WikiLeaks, and it has been said that the WikiLeaks main server was taken over, probably by our wonderful government. These may not have been messages from WikiLeaks at all, but someone trying to entrap Jr.

[Verginius Rufus]

After nearly a year all they have against Donald Trump, Sr., is the fake Fusion dossier, Donald Jr.'s brief meeting with a Russian lawyer, and a few emails exchanged with Wikileaks by Donald Jr.

Mueller is probably trying to decide whether he already has enough to recommend impeachment or if he needs some more items. Can the two-scoops-of-ice cream incident be considered an impeachable offense? How about the koi fish feeding incident?

[Parley Baer]

That is it? Pretty innocuous if you ask me.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Trump’s kids need to stay out of the political arena. What happened to running the family business? Who exactly is running it now?

[phoneman08]

Looks like they’re running out of Russian smears.

Every time POTUS makes a trip abroad, they drip out a new “bombshell”. So we’re down to a few PM’s from Assange.

Meanwhile Sessions will be before the House tomorrow and will be grilled on Fusion GPS, Mrs. Clinton, and Uranium one.

[JustTheTruth]

It may well be that Meuller and the Deep State have had illegally obtained NSA surveillance documents at hand for more than a year, but needed to have a grand jury’s cover to ask questions under oath and penalty of perjury that are intended to bring certain illegally obtained facts to light in a “legal” manner. Special place in hell for liars and attorneys.

[Robert DeLong]

at one point asking for copies of Trump's tax returns.

I think this what they were really after which makes one believe that he wasn't talking to WikiLeaks at all.

[Steven W.]

not only innocuous, it's absurd! Remember these were transmitted during the time that Assange's internet connection was shut down and his admin's were monitoring things - these read like they could been exchanged with anybody having any interest in the election. Here you've got Wikileaks pitching their stuff and Trump Jr. wondering what had been publicly announced! My guess the leak came from Adam Schiff. But ... after all this time, I thought there was was supposed to be collusion between Trump campaign, the Russians and Wikileaks with regards to the hacking (errrh LEAKING) of the DNC e-mails ALREADY having occurred months BEFORE.

[Steven W.]

I figured admin's but you may be right, since the rest of this thing has all been an obvious concoction & setup. Those were curious days ... I remember Pamela Anderson taking meals to Assange while he was cutoff.

[usconservative]

That's it? This is all there is? And Mueller, that doddering old fool is hot on the trail of exactly what?

I wish President Trump would end this nonsense, fire Mueller, fire McCabe, clear-out the FBI (it's sooooooooooooooooooo corrupt) and start it all over again.

I frankly would cheer my head off if he did.

[Major Matt Mason]

I remember Pamela Anderson taking meals to Assange while he was cutoff.

We have the best meal delivery persons, don't we folks?

[basalt]

another “russia leak”....ever notice that right after Trump has any kind of success, some kind of russia garbage is leaked. His Asian trip was close to spectacular, sure enough, another leak. This is all only being done to hurt him politically. They’ll drag this out at least til the mid terms next year...treat any russia contact like its a crime..the low info’s eat this stuff up.Friend of mine is convinced Trump is gonna be cuffed any day now...unreal.

[montag813]

If Donald Jr.; is interviewed by Mueller, he should record it and put in on YouTube, just to piss the old traitorous douchebag off.