Trump Jr.’s first tweets on WikiLeaks posted within days of being offered WikiLeaks documents

Donald Trump Jr.’s first tweet about WikiLeaks was made within days of receiving an email from WikiLeaks that offered access to documents during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to a report.

Trump Jr.’s first tweet about WikiLeaks was made Sept. 4, 2016, and directed followers to an article about WikiLeaks published by Gateway Pundit, a conservative news website that is staunchly pro-Trump.

CNN reported Friday that then-candidate Donald Trump, Trump Jr. and other people in the Trump Organization were offered a decryption key and web address to view hacked documents from WikiLeaks through an email sent on Sept. 4, the same day as the tweet.

However, subsequent reports from The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal date the email to Trump Jr. and other campaign officials as having been sent on Sept. 14. — more than a week later.

The other reports also say the emails did not include exclusive information, but documents that would have already been made public days before they were sent to Trump Jr. and others.

The date and contents of the email are critical to congressional investigators trying to determine whether the email was a legitimate attempt to offer the Trump campaign access to hacked materials. Investigators are also trying to verify the identity of the sender — listed as “Mike Erickson.”

{mosads}Alan Futerfas, a lawyer for Trump Jr., told CNN that his client did not recall receiving the email and did not take any action on it.

The email came a few weeks before WikiLeaks and Trump Jr. began communicating via direct message on Twitter.

The WikiLeaks Twitter account asked Trump Jr. to “push” a story about then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton wanting to “drone” Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, as well as advising Trump to contest the results of the 2016 presidential election if he lost.

WikiLeaks also encouraged Trump Jr. to “leak” his father’s tax returns to the organization because publishing Trump’s returns would “dramatically improve the perception of our impartiality.”

Trump Jr. testified before the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday as lawmakers sought information about his contacts with Russians, including a June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer who promised him damaging information on Clinton.

 

This story was updated at 1:43 p.m.

Tags Donald Trump Donald Trump Donald Trump Jr. Hillary Clinton Russia WikiLeaks

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