22-11-18 04:06:00,
President Donald Trump told a reporter outside the White House on Tuesday that he doesn’t “know anything” about WikiLeaks founder and former editor Julian Assange, whose political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London is believed to be under threat largely from pressure by the U.S. government.
Trump’s statements have been widely criticized as hypocritical, given that he heavily promoted WikiLeaks’ release of emails from the Democratic National Committee and former Hillary Clinton campaign chair John Podesta in the months and weeks prior to the October 2016 presidential election.
Trump claimed to know very little about Assange or his increasingly precarious situation when a reporter had asked him “Should Julian Assange go free?”
The question was a likely response to the recent news that the Department of Justice was set to indict Assange with the intent of immediately prompting his extradition, as well as the apparently accidental revelation that the DOJ has a sealed indictment waiting for Assange should he ever be extradited to the United States.
President Trump is asked, “Should Julian Assange go free?”
Trump: “I don’t know anything about him. Really. I don’t know much about him. I really don’t.” pic.twitter.com/3RT12rAaB9
— Andrew Blake (@apblake) November 20, 2018
I don’t know the guy, I just used him to get elected
In response to a question on whether Assange should be prosecuted or not, Trump responded that
“I don’t know anything about him. Really. I don’t know much about him. I really don’t.”
However, footage of Trump mentioning WikiLeaks and its releases over 140 times in October 2016 alone has since resurfaced, suggesting that Trump’s recent claims of ignorance in regard to Assange and WikiLeaks are insincere at best.
While Trump heavily promoted WikiLeaks prior to winning the 2016 election, his administration has since taken an aggressive stance towards WikiLeaks and Assange as well as towards government whistleblowers and leakers.
For example, Jeff Sessions, the former attorney general who was forced to resign earlier this month, had stated last year that Assange’s arrest was a “priority.” The Trump administration’s aggressive pursuit of Assange has also been revealed by statements made by top administration officials such as current Secretary of State and former CIA Director Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence as well as several U.S.