WikiLeaks tried to feed Donald Trump Jr. talking points via Twitter DM


The WikiLeaks Twitter account repeatedly messaged Donald Trump Jr. with political advice, The Atlantic reported Monday. Trump Jr. did not always respond to WikiLeaks' overtures, but The Atlantic reports that he did email senior officials in the Trump campaign, including Stephen Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, and Jared Kushner, in September 2016 to announce that WikiLeaks had contacted him.
On Oct. 3, 2016, for example, WikiLeaks messaged Trump Jr. about a quote from his father's then-rival for president, Hillary Clinton. "Hiya it'd be great if you guys could comment on/push this story," WikiLeaks wrote, attaching a screenshot of a leaked document where Clinton jokingly suggested droning WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Trump Jr. replied, per messages obtained by The Atlantic: "Already did that earlier today. It's amazing what she can get away with."
The messaging was mostly one-sided, and Trump Jr. stopped replying to WikiLeaks' messages in October 2016. But that didn't stop the organization from reaching out; weeks before the election, WikiLeaks suggested that the Trump campaign send them now-President Trump's tax returns in order to "improve the perception of our impartiality." On election day, hours before Trump became the clear winner, WikiLeaks suggested to Trump Jr. that his father refuse to concede the election and instead challenge the media and "other types of rigging that occurred."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
WikiLeaks declined to comment on the messages. An attorney for Trump Jr. said in a statement: "We can say with confidence that we have no concerns about these documents and any questions about them have been easily answered in the appropriate forum." As recently as July, WikiLeaks reached out to the first son, offering to publish his email exchange with Rob Goldstone, the publicist who set up his heavily scrutinized meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.
Read the full story on the correspondence between Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks at The Atlantic.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kelly O'Meara Morales is a staff writer at The Week. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and studied Middle Eastern history and nonfiction writing amongst other esoteric subjects. When not compulsively checking Twitter, he writes and records music, subsists on tacos, and watches basketball.
-
Zohran Mamdani: the young progressive likely to be New York City's next mayor
In The Spotlight The policies and experience that led to his meteoric rise
-
The best film reboots of all time
The Week Recommends Creativity and imagination are often required to breathe fresh life into old material
-
'More must be done'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
The last words and final moments of 40 presidents
The Explainer Some are eloquent quotes worthy of the holders of the highest office in the nation, and others... aren't
-
Senate advances GOP bill that costs more, cuts more
Speed Read The bill would make giant cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, leaving 11.8 million fewer people with health coverage
-
Canadian man dies in ICE custody
Speed Read A Canadian citizen with permanent US residency died at a federal detention center in Miami
-
GOP races to revise megabill after Senate rulings
Speed Read A Senate parliamentarian ruled that several changes to Medicaid included in Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" were not permissible
-
Supreme Court lets states ax Planned Parenthood funds
Speed Read The court ruled that Planned Parenthood cannot sue South Carolina over the state's effort to deny it funding
-
Trump plans Iran talks, insists nuke threat gone
Speed Read 'The war is done' and 'we destroyed the nuclear,' said President Trump
-
Trump embraces NATO after budget vow, charm offensive
Speed Read The president reversed course on his longstanding skepticism of the trans-Atlantic military alliance
-
Trump judge pick told DOJ to defy courts, lawyer says
Speed Read Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official nominated by Trump for a lifetime seat, stands accused of encouraging government lawyers to mislead the courts and defy judicial orders