Donald Trump Jr 'in contact with Wikileaks' during election campaign, leaked messages reveal
WikiLeaks was reportedly in direct contact with Donald Trump Jr, the son of the US President, just weeks before the 2016 election, a report has revealed.
The organisation’s steady release of hacked emails revealed Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server and had a considerable impact on the shape the 2016 presidential campaigns.
According to a report in The Atlantic, the WikiLeaks Twitter account sent a series of direct messages to Donald Trump Jr, who is the son of President Donald Trump. Those messages have since been shared with congressional investigators who are exploring potential links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
While Donald Trump Jr did not respond to many of the messages, The Atlantic reported, he did at times write back, including saying he would “ask around” about when Wikleaks mentioned a new political action committee opposed to his father’s candidacy.
Alan Futerfas, an attorney for Donald Trump Jr, did not respond to The Independent's request for comment. In a statement to The Atlantic, he said “we have worked cooperatively with each of the committees and have voluntarily turned over thousands of documents in response to their requests”.
“Putting aside the question as to why or by whom such documents, provided to Congress under promises of confidentiality, have been selectively leaked, we can say with confidence that we have no concerns about these documents and any questions raised about them have been easily answered in the appropriate forum“, Mr Futerfas said.
After The Atlantic's story was published, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said on Twitter that he “could not confirm” the magazine's account of Donald Trump Jr's direct messages, adding that the story lacked “the full context”.
“WikiLeaks can be very effective at convincing even high profile people that it is their interest to promote links to its publications”, Mr Assange wrote.
