Bombshell: WikiLeaks Corresponded With Don Jr, Asked Him to Push Fake News

This is all coming from a story published about an hour and half ago on The Atlantic website. Statements from Don Jr's lawyer appear to authenticate the leaks.

The Secret Correspondence Between Donald Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks

On October 3, 2016, WikiLeaks wrote again. “Hiya, it’d be great if you guys could comment on/push this story,” WikiLeaks suggested, attaching a quote from then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton about wanting to “just drone” WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange.

“Already did that earlier today,” Trump Jr. responded an hour-and-a-half later. “It’s amazing what she can get away with.”

The story in question came from fake news website, True Pundit.

Though Trump Jr. mostly ignored the frequent messages from WikiLeaks, he at times appears to have acted on its requests. When WikiLeaks first reached out to Trump Jr. about putintrump.org, for instance, Trump Jr. followed up on his promise to “ask around.” According to a source familiar with the congressional investigations into Russian interference with the 2016 campaign, who requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, on the same day that Trump Jr. received the first message from WikiLeaks, he emailed other senior officials with the Trump campaign, including Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Brad Parscale, and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, telling them WikiLeaks had made contact.

“Strongly suggest your dad tweets this link if he mentions us,” WikiLeaks went on, pointing Trump Jr. to the link wlsearch.tk, which it said would help Trump’s followers dig through the trove of stolen documents and find stories. “There’s many great stories the press are missing and we’re sure some of your follows [sic] will find it,” WikiLeaks went on. “Btw we just released Podesta Emails Part 4.”

Trump Jr. did not respond to this message. But just 15 minutes after it was sent, as The Wall Street Journal’s Byron Tau pointed out, Donald Trump himself tweeted, “Very little pick-up by the dishonest media of incredible information provided by WikiLeaks. So dishonest! Rigged system!”

In the article, Alan Futerfas, Don Jr's attorney, confirms in his statement that the leaks come from among documents turned over to Congress.

a reply to: theantediluvian

Seems to me wiki leaks was trying to push their product pretty hard. They knew the stuff they were reporting would be mostly well received and spread by Trump supporters.

So...whats bombshell about that? Is there something nefarious or illegal that I missed?

Also was it proven to have been fake news at the time this correspondence was had?

“Hey Don. We have an unusual idea,” Wikileaks wrote on October 21, 2016. “Leak us one or more of your father’s tax returns.” Wikileaks then laid out three reasons why this would benefit both the Trumps and Wikileaks. One, The New York Times had already published a fragment of Trump’s tax returns on October 1; two, the rest could come out any time “through the most biased source (e.g. NYT/MSNBC).”

It is the third reason, though, Wikileaks wrote, that “is the real kicker.” “If we publish them it will dramatically improve the perception of our impartiality,” Wikileaks explained. “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.” It then provided an email address and link where the Trump campaign could send the tax returns, and adds, “The same for any other negative stuff (documents, recordings) that you think has a decent chance of coming out. Let us put it out.”

"Let us appear unbiased so the Clinton stuff can have a greater impact." Wow...this is all coming from the congressional investigation according to Trump Jr's lawyer.

a reply to: theantediluvian

Sounded more like an advert plug request than pushing fake news...what exactly was fake about any of it. Also how is it wrong to point to publicly available info? Its not as if WL gave the Trump campaign anything exclusively...it was all publicly available.

I can already here the people crying 'fake news'. This may very well be a non-validated link but there is more smoke in this fire than the Clinton death squad.

a reply to: links234

Assange was working with Trump in hopes of deal for asylum.

a reply to: theantediluvian

What is the bombshell?

The article even admits the the 'conversation' was largely one sided and that all docs have been given to the courts. Or has the article put it, the Atlantic obtained them, and so did the courts.

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

That would have been awkward considering he won...

Maybe these wiki leaks guys don't know that much as some people here like to think.

There's more:

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.

a reply to: links234

Wow, they were trying to coordinate a fake leak of Trump's taxes to bolster the "the perception of our impartiality?"

a reply to: theantediluvian

What constitutes fakes news these days?

a reply to: Indigent

I think very few expected Trump to win.

a reply to: theantediluvian

They can request anything they want. They didnt get any of that though.

a reply to: theantediluvian


Hello TAD- You ever see those guys on YouTube® with the videos and they get into a dialogue w/folks who have taken the time to leave a comment and then beg that person to watch some more of their videos and then genuflect w/the "PLEASE!! PLEASE!!! subscribe and then I'll subscribe to Yours.. (If not check out just about anyones bass fishing video)

Anyways this is that but on STEROIDS! Anything for a 'click'. Remember when the 'journalist' would do some due diligence and some fact-checking? That went out with the Hula-Hoop™

"Bernstein & Woodward" became 'BrownStain & Wouldn'tword".. Add this to folks still stuck in the 2-Party Paradigm and it is curtains...

a reply to: theantediluvian

Well...did they do it?

a reply to: FauxMulder

You don't think it reflects badly on WikiLeaks? WikiLeaks which goes to great lengths to pretend impartiality while ostensibly advocating for transparency?

Secretly they're asking Don Jr to push fake news stories? They're asking for Team Trump to "leak" Donald Trump's taxes to them to give the perception of impartiality? How isn't that a bombshell?

I think the bombshell here is that people involved with the investigation are leaking with a clear partisan agenda...which bodes ill of any fair investigation.

Wikileaks trying to act impartial here is a sign they aren't impartial at all.

a reply to: JinMI

You think this bodes well for WikiLeaks?

On October 3, 2016, WikiLeaks wrote again. “Hiya, it’d be great if you guys could comment on/push this story,”

urging the Trump campaign on Election Day to reject the results of the election as rigged

How about this?

“Hey Don. We have an unusual idea,” WikiLeaks wrote on October 21, 2016. “Leak us one or more of your father’s tax returns.” WikiLeaks then laid out three reasons why this would benefit both the Trumps and WikiLeaks. One, The New York Times had already published a fragment of Trump’s tax returns on October 1; two, the rest could come out any time “through the most biased source (e.g. NYT/MSNBC).”

It is the third reason, though, WikiLeaks wrote, that “is the real kicker.” “If we publish them it will dramatically improve the perception of our impartiality,” WikiLeaks explained. “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.”

Leak us some tax returns so we can pretend to be impartial?

Good thing they were unsuccessful at getting classified material into Trump's hands.

The trap never got sprung.