Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has claimed that he contacted US President Donald Trump’s son to publish via Wikileaks the emails about setting up a meeting with a Russian lawyer who claimed to have damaging information on Hillary Clinton.
Instead, the US President’s eldest son did so via Twitter, igniting a firestorm of criticism around his apparent willingness to work with the Russian Government against his father’s Democratic rival, the Guardian reported. “Contacted Trump Jr this morning on why he should publish his emails (i.e with us),” tweeted Assange, who is based at Ecuadorian Embassy in london. “Two hours later, does it himself.”
Trump Jr released the emails on Tuesday after The New York Times told him they had the documents and would be reporting on them. Assange said he told Trump Jr to release the documents “because his enemies have it -- so why not the publicIJ”
“Better to be transparent and have the full context,” he continued, “but would have been safer for us to publish it anonymously sourced. By publishing it himself it is easier to submit as evidence.”