But WikiLeaks was Trump’s deal in 2016 as he welcomed the political boost his campaign got and cheered on the release of Clinton campaign e-mails.
On the same October day that the “Access Hollywood” tape emerged, revealing that Trump had bragged in 2005 about groping women, WikiLeaks began releasing damaging e-mails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta. Trump and his allies, facing a tough battle in the campaign’s final month, seized on the illegal dumps and weaponized them.
“WikiLeaks, I love WikiLeaks,” Trump said in Pennsylvania.
“This WikiLeaks is like a treasure trove,” Trump said in Michigan.
“Boy, I love reading WikiLeaks,” Trump said in Ohio.
All told, Trump extolled WikiLeaks more than 100 times, and a poster of Assange hung backstage at the Republican’s debate war room. At no point from a rally stage did Trump express any misgivings about how WikiLeaks obtained the e-mails from the Clinton campaign or about the accusations of stealing sensitive U.S. government information, which led to the charges against Assange on Thursday.
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