The Atlantic’s Julia Ioffe had a scoop to share Monday: reportedly, the president’s son, Donald Trump, Jr., corresponded with Wikileaks during the 2016 campaign, although it appears that Wikileaks was the party making the most requests.
SCOOP: Turns out Donald Trump, Jr. corresponded with Wikileaks during the 2016 presidential campaign. My latest. https://t.co/pVGEBqmB9O
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) November 13, 2017
SPOILER: Wikileaks DM'd @DonaldJTrumpJr and he blew it off. https://t.co/RXcuyAyzZj
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) November 13, 2017
Pretty much.
The “SCOOP” is one Twitter DM exchange in which @DonaldJTrumpJr blew them off when they asked him a general question. https://t.co/7lq4ssJ4IB
— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) November 13, 2017
In fact, The Atlantic notes that the correspondence was mostly one-sided: it looks like Trump Jr. just wasn’t that into Wikileaks.
The messages … are part of a long—and largely one-sided—correspondence between WikiLeaks and the president’s son that continued until at least July 2017. The messages show WikiLeaks, a radical transparency organization that the American intelligence community believes was chosen by the Russian government to disseminate the information it had hacked, actively soliciting Trump Jr.’s cooperation. WikiLeaks made a series of increasingly bold requests, including asking for Trump’s tax returns, urging the Trump campaign on Election Day to reject the results of the election as rigged, and requesting that the president-elect tell Australia to appoint Julian Assange ambassador to the United States.
If anything, the piece makes Wikileaks look bad, and certainly not transparent when it comes to its own wishes.
So, which is it?
The content of this story (worth reading) isn't as damning as I thought it might be. Don Jr. mostly ignored the 'largely-one sided' twitter DM's & turned them all over to investigators. https://t.co/L1Q3O9P3UP
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) November 13, 2017
Wikileaks comes off as relentlessly thirsty and needy. Don Jr. comes off as barely interested & rarely responsive.
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) November 13, 2017
Or …
This blows the lid off everything. Donald Trump, Jr. was in touch with Wikileaks, who trafficked the DNC emails stolen by Russia. https://t.co/tKFXsVhYqp
— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) November 13, 2017
this is a bombshell @juliaioffe — proof of collusion https://t.co/BalcRAvo2j
— Norm Eisen (@NormEisen) November 13, 2017
Yes, he was in touch with Wikileaks, but again, Wikileaks comes across almost as pestering Trump Jr. for favors. We imagine we’ll be hearing the word “bombshell” a lot, but those screaming “IMPEACH!” seem to be reading a lot more into the story; that is, if they’ve read it at all.
This. Is. Not. Normal. Either. https://t.co/4oZcXGcwW8
— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) November 13, 2017
BRING HIM DOWN https://t.co/CexTXmGTCf
— Wesley Jetton (@Sweet_Simba) November 13, 2017
Mostly looking forward to Don Jr going to jail.. https://t.co/PC9qNM9K2L
— Joe S. (@josell4108) November 13, 2017
https://twitter.com/CoryCleveland25/status/930201320564379649
https://twitter.com/evesomewhere/status/930201123075616768
A few, more realistic takes:
Great story. And I hope it's clear that Wikileaks has been little more than a Kremlin intelligence operation. Any independent "transparency" mission it had ended years ago. https://t.co/adbiD7q60i
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) November 13, 2017
This is the end of any thought that Assange is more than a parasite who only cares about himself. Amazing that he was once a hero to some https://t.co/x7FOeiPB1W
— Howard Dean (@GovHowardDean) November 13, 2017
The key thing here for me is that Wikileaks shows itself to be soliciting material. They are not an apolitical site just accepting leaks. What does this say about Chelsea Manning? Did Assange/Wikileaks prompt her to steal? If so, are they part of the crime? https://t.co/FsEZJCML78
— John Sipher (@john_sipher) November 13, 2017
https://twitter.com/eREM1600/status/930202274638516224
Will this scoop make the jump from The Atlantic to the cable news cycle? It seems unlikely to unseat Roy Moore at the moment.
* * *
Update:
Julian Assange responds:
I cannot confirm the alleged DM's from @DonaldJTrumpJr to @WikiLeaks. @WikiLeaks does not keep such records and the Atlantic's presentation is edited and clearly does not have the full context. However, even those published by the Atlantic show that: 1/
— Defend Assange Campaign (@DefendAssange) November 13, 2017
WikiLeaks loves its pending publications and ignores those who ask for details. Trump Jr. was rebuffed just like Cambridge Analytica. In both cases WikiLeaks had publicly teased the publications. Thousands of people asked about them. 2/
— Defend Assange Campaign (@DefendAssange) November 13, 2017
WikiLeaks can be very effective at convincing even high profile people that it is their interest to promote links to its publications. 3/
— Defend Assange Campaign (@DefendAssange) November 13, 2017
WikiLeaks has such chutzpah that it allegedly tried to convince Trump Jr to leak his father's tax returns & his own "Russian lawyer meeting" emails (he did). WikiLeaks appears to beguile some people into transparency by convincing them that it is in their interest. 4/
— Defend Assange Campaign (@DefendAssange) November 14, 2017
* * *
Update:
Donald Trump, Jr. has decided to up the ante by posting copies of the direct messages written about in the piece.
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! 1/3 pic.twitter.com/SiwTqWtykA
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 14, 2017
2/3 pic.twitter.com/b1B9PBGl5t
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 14, 2017
3/3 pic.twitter.com/5FdeNrbg02
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 14, 2017
* * *
Related:
Not just a lewd joke: Julia Ioffe's obscene Ivanka Trump tweet was a hateful anti-woman act https://t.co/zEJBJ7jIhN
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) December 15, 2016
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