https://www.theatlantic.com/politic...between-donald-trump-jr-and-wikileaks/545738/
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."
The messages, obtained by The Atlantic, were also turned over by Trump Jr.'s lawyers to congressional investigators. They are part of a long—and largely one-sided—correspondence between Wikileaks and the president's son that continued until at least July 2017. The messages show Wikileaks, a radical transparency organization that the American intelligence community believes was chosen by the Russian government to disseminate the information it had hacked, actively soliciting Trump Jr.'s cooperation. Wikileaks made a series of increasingly bold requests, including asking for Trump's tax returns, urging the Trump campaign to reject the results of the election as rigged, and requesting that the president-elect tell Australia to appoint Julian Assange ambassador to the United States.
On October 3, 2016, Wikileaks wrote again. "Hiya, it'd be great if you guys could comment on/push this story," Wikileaks suggested, attaching a quote from then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton about wanting to "just drone" Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange.
"Already did that earlier today," Trump Jr. responded an hour-and-a-half later. "It's amazing what she can get away with."
Two minutes later, Trump Jr. wrote again, asking, "What's behind this Wednesday leak I keep reading about?" The day before, Roger Stone, an informal advisor to Donald Trump, had tweeted, "Wednesday@HillaryClinton is done. #Wikileaks."
Wikileaks didn't respond to that message, but on October 12, 2016, the account again messaged Trump Jr. "Hey Donald, great to see you and your dad talking about our publications," Wikileaks wrote. (At a rally on October 10, Donald Trump had proclaimed, "I love Wikileaks!")
"Strongly suggest your dad tweets this link if he mentions us," Wikileaks went on, pointing Trump Jr. to the link wlsearch.tk, which it said would help Trump's followers dig through the trove of stolen documents and find stories. "There's many great stories the press are missing and we're sure some of your follows [sic] will find it," Wikileaks went on. "Btw we just released Podesta Emails Part 4."
