Trump Jr unveils messages with WikiLeaks over Clinton e-mails

WASHING TON: President Donald Trump’s son released a series of messages he had with WikiLeaks after a report suggested he had secretly liaised with the group that published Hillary Clinton’s e-mails during last year’s election.

Donald Trump, Jr revealed what he said was the “entire” chain of Twitter direct messages with WikiLeaks between September 2016 and July this year, in which the anti-secrecy group sought to feed information to the Trump campaign and enhance the impact of its Clinton releases.

Trump Jr’s release, also done on Twitter, shows about a dozen messages from WikiLeaks to him, and what he called “my whopping 3 responses”.

WikiLeaks is shown informing Trump Jr of a new anti-Trump website, urging his father to tweet about WikiLeaks’s Clinton files and advising that, if he loses the election, Trump should challenge the result.

The group also asks Trump Jr to provide his father’s tax returns because “it will dramatically improve the perception of our impartiality” while boosting the impact of its Clinton materials.

And in April, WikiLeaks suggested Trump Jr hand over emails regarding a meeting he had with a Russian lawyer that has become a focus of the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. — AFP