Donald Trump Jr.’s links to Wikileaks revealed
President Donald Trump’s eldest son exchanged private messages with WikiLeaks during the presidential campaign while the website was publishing hacked emails from Democratic officials, according to correspondence made public Monday.
Donald Trump Jr. did not respond to many of the notes, sent using direct message on Twitter. But he alerted senior advisers on his father’s campaign, including his brother-inlaw, Jared Kushner, according to two people familiar with the exchanges.
In the messages, WikiLeaks urged Trump Jr. to promote its hacked Democratic emails and suggested that Trump challenge the election results if he did not win, among other ideas. They were first reported by the Atlantic and later posted by Trump Jr. on Twitter.
WikiLeaks was described in April by CIA Director Mike Pompeo as a “nonstate hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia.”
In July 2016, the organization released thousands of emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee by a cyber-hack that U.S. intelligence officials concluded was orchestrated by the Russian government.
The newly revealed exchanges provide additional information about the role played by Trump Jr. in 2016.
Alan Futerfas, Trump Jr.’s attorney, said his client’s exchanges with WikiLeaks were innocuous.
“All sides in this campaign … were monitoring WikiLeaks to see what they would publish next,” Futerfas said.
At one point during his communication with WikiLeaks, Trump Jr. sought to learn more about a rumored leak of new documents related to Clinton, the messages indicate.
“What’s behind this Wednesday leak I keep reading about?” Trump Jr. asked during one exchange with the WikiLeaks account on Oct. 3.
On Oct. 12, the account replied to Trump Jr. with a suggestion:
“Strongly suggest your dad tweets this link if he mentions us,” WikiLeaks wrote. The message included a link to search documents that had been hacked from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta.
Trump Jr. did not answer. Fifteen minutes later, the father, Donald Trump, tweeted: “Very little pickup by the dishonest media of incredible information provided by WikiLeaks. So dishonest! Rigged system!”
Two days later, Trump Jr. tweeted the link to his followers.
On Monday, White House lawyer Ty Cobb referred questions about the exchanges to Futerfas.