WikiLeaks Set Off an Attack on Our Trump-Russia Project Right After Messaging Trump Jr. About It

WikiLeaks Set Off an Attack on Our Trump-Russia Project—Right After Messaging Donald Trump Jr. About It

Was Julian Assange trying to conspire with the Trump campaign?

BILL BUZENBERGNOV. 15, 2017 6:00 AM

On Monday, The Atlantic published private messages from September 2016 in which WikiLeaks gave Donald Trump Jr. the password to a forthcoming site documenting his father’s ties to Russia. But there was more to the story of WikiLeaks’ apparent effort to conspire with the Trump campaign against PutinTrump.org—and I had a front-row seat to it, as editorial director of the site. Within just minutes of reaching out to Trump Jr., WikiLeaks also publicized the password, setting off a wave of online harassment, email bombs, and personal threats against people behind the site.

Here’s the deeper story.

On the evening of September 20, 2016, WikiLeaks sent a direct message on Twitter to Trump Jr.: “A PAC run anti-Trump site putintrump.org is about to launch. The PAC is a recycled pro-Iraq war PAC. We have guessed the password. It is ‘putintrump.’ See ‘About’ for who is behind it. Any comments?”

“Off the record I don’t know who that is, but I’ll ask around,” Trump Jr. responded about 12 hours later. “Thanks.”

Trump Jr. soon emailed top officials in the Trump campaign about the exchange, according to The Atlantic, including Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, digital director Brad Parscale, and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner; Kushner forwarded the email to campaign communications staffer Hope Hicks.

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http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/11/wikileaks-donald-trump-jr-twitter-attack/