Tags: Wikileaks »»»» Trump Campaign »»»» Russia »»»» Julian Assange
Within the released and redacted Mueller Report is details of Julian Assange's efforts to ensure Wikileaks played a partisan role in the US Election of 2016. Wikileaks portrays itself as a journalistic organization, but Assange's effort to play a role in ensuring Clinton lost is not the action of a journalist. Journalists do not pick sides, but report events. Some wish us to see Assange as some kind of hero of the people. Perhaps Assange and Wikileaks used to play a positive hero-of-the-people role, but taking sides in political contests has destroyed that image of Wikileaks.
The Mueller Report contains a fair amount of communication by Julian Assange, as well as between Assange and the DCLeaks and Guccifer2 persona's operated by GRU agents. These communications are repeated below.
Taken together these communications are not the actions of a Journalist, but instead of someone who has a Political Goal. It is clear that Assange explicitly sought to damage the Clinton campaign, and sought to use Wikileaks as a tool to do so.
This makes Assange no different from any other political activist, and by extension makes Wikileaks no different from any propaganda organization. That is, Assange's actions are politically motivated, and Assange is using the Wikileaks organization to present a slanted version of truth to pursue a political agenda.
Now that someone has replaced Assange as the Editor of Wikileaks, that person might take actions to repair the damage Assange has done to Wikileaks. The original purpose of Wikileaks was noble - helping information about corrupt government actions to be published.
Given what we now know about Assange, we have to ask whether Wikileaks ever properly lived up to the Aura of Godliness many see around Wikileaks. Maybe Assange was always a political activist using Wikileaks to further political goals?
The Mueller Report raises the question whether Assange ever knew that DCLeaks and Guccifer2 were fake persona's operated by GRU agents.
The Mueller Report does not discuss the fact that Assange frequently appeared on RT News broadcasts. That detail is important since RT is a Russian propaganda organization.
Assange particularly focused on using Wikileaks to harm Clinton campaign
In a section labeled Dissemination of the Hacked Materials is described the activities of GRU agents through the DC Leaks and Guccifer 2 persona's as well as a subsection labeled "Use of Wikileaks". While the GRU used DC Leaks and Guccifer 2 to publish the material they stole, the GRU also coordinated with Wikileaks to release some data through that site.
The Mueller Report details ways in which Assange "expressed opposition" to the Clinton Campaign, and how that flavored the actions he and Wikileaks undertook. It has been widely reported elsewhere that Assange hated Clinton.
WikiLeaks, and particularly its founder Julian Assange, privately expressed opposition to candidate Clinton well before the first release of stolen documents. In November 2015, Assange wrote to other members and associates of WikiLeaks that "[w]e believe it would be much better for GOP to win ... Dems + Media + liberals woudl [sic] then form a block to reign in their worst qualities. . . . With Hillary in charge, GOP will be pushing for her worst qualities. , dems+media+neoliberals will be mute . ... She's a bright, well connected, sadisitic sociopath."
That then connected to a footnote saying:
156 1l/19/15 Twitter Group Chat, Group ID 594242937858486276, @WikiLeaks et al. Assange also wrote that, "GOP will generate a lot oposition [sic], including through dumb moves. Hillary will do the same thing, but co-opt the liberal opposition and the GOP opposition. Hence biliary has greater freedom to statt wars than the GOP and has the will to do so." Id.
Then explaining the Clinton e-mail archive, the report says:
In March 2016, WikiLeaks released a searchable archive of approximately 30,000 Clinton emails that had been obtained through FOIA litigation. 157 While designing the archive , one WikiLeaks member explained the reason for building the archive to another associate:
[W]e want this repository to become "the place" to search for background on hillary's plotting at the state department during 2009-2013. . . . Firstly because its useful and will annoy Hillary, but secondly because we want to be seen to be a resource/player in the US election, because eit [sic] may en[]courage people to send us even more important leaks. 158
157 WikiLeaks, "Hillary Clinton Email Archive," available at
https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/.
158 3/14/16 Twitter DM, @WikiLeaks to Less than two weeks earlier, the same account had been used to send a private message opposing the idea of Clinton "in whitehouse with her bloodlutt and amitions [sic] of empire with hawkish liberal-interventionist appointees." 11/19/15 Twitter Group Chat, Group ID 594242937858486276, @WikiLeaks et al.
Assange, Wikileaks, DC Leaks, and Guccifer2 all communicating and coordinating
In mid-June there were initial contacts between the GRU (through DCLeaks and Guccifer2) and Wikileaks. First on June 14, DCLeaks contacted Wikileaks using Twitter direct messaging saying "You announced your organization was preparing to publish more Hillary's emails. We are ready to support you. We have some sensitive information too, in particular, her financial documents. Let's do it to ether. What do ou think about ublishin our info at the same moment? Thank ou." Then on June 22, Wikileaks used Twitter direct messaging to contact Guccifer2 saying "[s]end any new material [stolen from the DNC] here for us to review and it will have a much higher impact than what you are doing."
Then on July 6, Wikileaks sent Guccifer2 another Twitter direct message saying "if you have anything hillary related we want it in the next tweo [sic] days prefab le [sic] because the DNC is approaching and she will solidify bernie supporters behind her after." They went on to say "we think trump has only a 25% chance of winning against hillary ... so conflict between bernie and hillary is interesting."
Wikileaks and Guccifer2 (GRU) then coordinated a release of emails just before the Democratic National Convention:
On July 14, 2016, GRU officers used a Guccifer 2.0 email account to send WikiLeaks an email bearing the subject "big archive" and the message "a new attempt." 163 The email contained an encrypted attachment with the name "wk dnc link I .txt.gpg." 164 Using the Guccifer 2.0 Twitter account, GRU officers sent WikiLeaks an encrypted file and instructions on how to open it.165 On July 18, 2016, WikiLeaks confirmed in a direct message to the Guccifer 2.0 account that it had "the 1Gb or so archive" and would make a release of the stolen documents "this week." 166 On July 22, 2016, WikiLeaks released over 20,000 emails and other documents stolen from the DNC computer networks. 167 The Democratic National Convention began three days later.
Wikileaks and Guccifer2 and DCLeaks continued coordinating the release of stolen materials up until the election. They used encryption, such as PGP-signed attachments, or secured communication systems that it seems Federal agents could not tap into.
Wikileaks and the Access Hollywood tape
On October 7, 2016 the Washington Post released a video tape from an appearance by Donald Trump on the Access Hollywood TV show. On the tape Trump is heard bragging about how he just grabs women by the pussy, starts kissing them, etc, demonstrating that Trump is an out-of-control sexual molester. In any normal political contest that would have sunk that candidate's chances.
However within an hour of the release of that tape, the Mueller Report notes that Wikileaks released the first tranche of emails stolen by the GRU from the account of Clinton Campaign chairman John Podesta.
The stolen emails acted to derail attention on the Access Hollywood tape, and to continue the controversy around Clinton and her e-mails problem.
The Mueller Report does not identify any direct communication between the Trump Campaign and Wikileaks about releasing these emails.
