Donald Trump Jr. responded to a new report on Monday about his correspondence with WikiLeaks before the 2016 presidential election, tweeting out screenshots of his three responses to the organization.
Trump Jr., a campaign surrogate and the eldest son of then-candidate Donald Trump, responded three times to messages from WikiLeaks' Twitter account back in September and October 2016, but didn't appear to respond to any of their other messages, according to the Atlantic.
Just before the stroke of midnight on September 20, 2016, at the height of last year’s presidential election, the WikiLeaks Twitter account sent a private direct message to Donald Trump Jr., the Republican nominee’s oldest son and campaign surrogate. "A PAC run anti-Trump site putintrump.org is about to launch," WikiLeaks wrote. "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?" (The site, which has since become a joint project with Mother Jones, was founded by Rob Glaser, a tech entrepreneur, and was funded by Progress for USA Political Action Committee.)
The next morning, about 12 hours later, Trump Jr. responded to WikiLeaks. "Off the record I don’t know who that is, but I’ll ask around," he wrote on September 21, 2016. "Thanks."
WikiLeaks sent Trump Jr. a quote from then-candidate Hillary Clinton about WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, a couple weeks later and asked him if the campaign could push the story. WikiLeaks alleged that Clinton said that she wished she could "just drone" Assange.
"Already did that earlier today," Trump Jr. responded an hour-and-a-half later. "It’s amazing what she can get away with."
Trump Jr. did not respond to any of the other messages from WikiLeaks' Twitter account according to the Atlantic article and the screenshots that Trump Jr. provided on Twitter.
"Here is the entire chain of messages with @wikileaks (with my whopping 3 responses) which one of the congressional committees has chosen to selectively leak. How ironic!" Trump Jr. tweeted.
Here is the entire chain of messages with @wikileaks (with my whopping 3 responses) which one of the congressional committees has chosen to selectively leak. How ironic! 1/3 pic.twitter.com/SiwTqWtykA
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 14, 2017
2/3 pic.twitter.com/b1B9PBGl5t
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 14, 2017
3/3 pic.twitter.com/5FdeNrbg02
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 14, 2017
Assange responded to the report, a couple hours before Trump Jr. tweeted out the screenshots, by saying that he could not confirm the "alleged DM's." He went on to say that he "does not keep such records and the Atlantic's presentation is edited and clearly does not have the full context."
I cannot confirm the alleged DM's from @DonaldJTrumpJr to @WikiLeaks. @WikiLeaks does not keep such records and the Atlantic's presentation is edited and clearly does not have the full context. However, even those published by the Atlantic show that: 1/
— Julian Assange 🔹 (@JulianAssange) November 13, 2017
"Incredible. The Atlantic edited 'Trump Jr' DM story to reverse its meaning even removing 'that the Clinton campaign is constantly slandering us with' right after 'pro-Russia'. Full text changes everything," Assange tweeted after the screenshots were released.
Incredible. The Atlantic edited "Trump Jr" DM story to reverse its meaning even removing "that the Clinton campaign is constantly slandering us with" right after "pro-Russia". Full text changes everything. https://t.co/8pNUF1xW23
— Julian Assange 🔹 (@JulianAssange) November 14, 2017