President Trump, who repeatedly touted WikiLeaks on the campaign trail in 2016, denied knowing anything about the whistleblower website or its founder, Julian Assange, who was arrested in London early Thursday.
President Trump, who repeatedly touted WikiLeaks on the campaign trail in 2016, on Thursday denied knowing anything about the whistleblower website or its founder, Julian Assange, who was arrested in London earlier in the day.
The U.S. Justice Department then requested his extradition, charging him with conspiring with Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. intelligence analyst, to hack into a Pentagon computer. Assange entered an innocent plea to a charge that he failed to surrender in the Swedish rape case. A hearing relating to the U.S. extradition charges was set for May 2.Trump said he did not have an opinion on what should happen to Assange, and would leave it up to Attorney General William Barr.
In 2010, after WikiLeaks first published its trove of cables provided by Manning, Trump, at that time a private citizen, told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade that he believed Assange deserved the death penalty.— Vic Berger IV April 11, 2019 But his tune changed in 2016 when WikiLeaks began publishing emails obtained through Russian hacks of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign.
During the month leading up to the 2016 election, Trump talked about WikiLeaks and the stolen emails at least 164 times, according to an analysis by ThinkProgress, the progressive think tank.
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