‘LEAKS’ SPEAK
Manafort and Assange chatted pre-elex: report
Embattled ex-Trump aide Paul Manafort met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange around the time he was appointed to his highprofile post atop the President’s campaign, according to a report Tuesday.
Manafort held a private conversation with Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London in March 2016, just months before WikiLeaks published thousands of emails stolen from Democrats by Russian hackers, The Guardian reported. His visit was not logged with guards as is typical for such face-to-face meetings.
President Trump hired Manafort to run his White House bid the same month.
Both Manafort and Assange denied the report and threatened to take legal action against the British newspaper.
“WikiLeaks is suing The Guardian for libel over this serious fabrication,” the radical transparency organization said in a statement asking for donations to a legal defense fund.
Manafort called the story “totally false and deliberately libelous,” denied ever meeting Assange and said he’s “considering all legal options.”
“I have never been contacted by anyone connected to WikiLeaks, either directly or indirectly,” Manafort, who is in jail awaiting sentencing, said in a statement. “I have never reached out to Assange or WikiLeaks on any matter.”
Assange has been living at the Ecuadorian embassy since seeking political asylum in 2012.
According to The Guardian, after special counsel Robert Mueller said in court papers Manafort lied to investigators and violated his plea deal. It’s unclear what Manafort lied about.
Mueller has been investigating the longtime Trump associate as part of a larger probe into Russian election interference and possible coordination between the President’s campaign and the Kremlin.
The Guardian cited an internal document written by Ecuador’s Senain intelligence agency, which lists Manafort and “Russians” as guests of Assange.
Manafort has been behind bars since his bail was revoked in June after Mueller charged he had attempted to tamper with witnesses in the Russia probe. He was convicted of bank and tax fraud charges in a Virginia case and pleaded guilty to conspiracy in a separate case. He’s expected to be sentenced in both cases early next year.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Trump knew nothing of alleged meetings between Manafort and Assange when he hireAdP the 69-year-old GOP consultant.
“I don’t know about it, and if I don’t know about it, he doesn’t know it,” Giuliani told the Daily News.
Mueller has reportedly been investigating possible contacts between WikiLeaks and Trump associates, including Roger Stone and Donald Trump Jr.