![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP17318100863991.jpg_5ea2e5.jpg\")
Trump Jr. downplayed the exchanges as he released them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHere is the entire chain of messages with @wikileaks (with my whopping 3 responses) which one of the congressional committees has chosen to selectively leak,\u201d he tweeted. \u201cHow ironic!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump Jr.\u2018s lawyers had released the exchanges to three congressional committees that have been investigating Russian intervention in the 2016 election and whether there were any links to Trump\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a statement, Trump Jr.\u2018s lawyer said thousands of documents had been turned over to the committees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPutting aside the question as to why or by whom such documents, provided to Congress under promises of confidentiality, have been selectively leaked, we can say with confidence that we have no concerns about these documents and any questions raised about them have been easily answered in the appropriate forum,\u201d said Alan Futerfas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Futerfas didn\u2019t say which forum he was referring to, but Trump Jr. was interviewed behind closed doors by Senate Judiciary Committee staff in September. A person familiar with that meeting said the private Twitter messages were discussed. The person declined to be identified because the transcript of that interview hasn\u2019t been made public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In one message dated Oct. 3, 2016, the WikiLeaks Twitter account sent Trump Jr. an article that included critical comments Clinton had made about WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange and said \u201cit\u2019d be great if you guys could comment on\/push this story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump Jr. replied: \u201cAlready did that earlier today. It\u2019s amazing what she can get away with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two minutes later, Trump Jr. sent another message: \u201cWhat\u2019s behind this Wednesday leak I keep reading about?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Longtime Trump associate Roger Stone had tweeted the day before that on Wednesday, \u201cHillary Clinton is done,\u201d referencing WikiLeaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The WikiLeaks Twitter account never responded, but days later WikiLeaks started rolling out Podesta\u2019s stolen emails. After the emails were released, WikiLeaks sent Trump Jr. a searchable link of the emails. Trump Jr. tweeted that link two days later, on Oct. 14, 2016, The Atlantic noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rest of the messages are one-sided, with WikiLeaks sending Trump Jr. messages through July 2017. They include praise for his father for mentioning them on the campaign trail, a plea to release Trump\u2019s taxes to the site and advice on Election Day that Trump should not concede if he lost. One message suggested Trump encourage Australia to appoint Assange as U.S. ambassador.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In July, the Twitter account messaged Trump Jr. to ask him to give the site emails surrounding a meeting he and other Trump associates held with Russians during the campaign. Trump Jr. then released them himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vice President Mike Pence responded quickly to the revelations, issuing a statement through his press secretary that he knew nothing about the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe vice president was never aware of anyone associated with the campaign being in contact with WikiLeaks,\u201d said spokeswoman Alyssa Farah. \u201cHe first learned of this news from a published report earlier tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Assange tweeted after The Atlantic report that he couldn\u2019t confirm the messages but then defended them after Trump Jr. released them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWikiLeaks appears to beguile some people into transparency by convincing them that it is in their interest,\u201d Assange tweeted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Tuesday, former WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said he never met anyone in the Trump campaign. Hrafnsson said he could not say whether anyone else on WikiLeaks\u2019 team had met with Trump staffers, noting that he stepped away from his full time role with the organization in early 2016, before Trump became the Republican nominee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Democrats swiftly reacted to the report, saying Trump Jr. should provide more information. California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, says it \u201cdemonstrates once again a willingness by the highest levels of the Trump campaign to accept foreign assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Schiff also pointed to Cambridge Analytica, a data firm that worked for Trump\u2019s campaign and reached out to WikiLeaks before the election about obtaining emails related to Clinton, according to the company\u2019s CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the panel should subpoena the documents and force Trump Jr. to publicly testify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere seems to be no reasonable explanation for these messages,\u201d Blumenthal said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley had said he would call Trump Jr. to publicly testify after the private interview in September. But negotiations over witnesses broke down last month amid disagreements with Democrats on the panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The House and Senate intelligence committees are also expecting to interview Trump Jr., but those interviews are expected to be behind closed doors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Eric Tucker, Chad Day, Tom LoBianco and Raphael Satter in London contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Donald Trump\u2019s oldest son released a series of private Twitter exchanges between himself and WikiLeaks during and after the 2016 election, including pleas from the website to publicize its leaks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":89493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":68,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[100,12,25,68],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1213],"class_list":["post-53333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"QMHPRANFPFG5ZDJKYOXBY2I3LY","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2017\/11\/15\/trump-jrs-wikileaks-exchange-adds-intrigue-to-russia-probe\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n