Trump absurdly claims he knows ‘nothing about Wikileaks’: Here's his long record of acknowledging — and championing — the organization

After seeking refuge in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London for six years, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been arrested and is now in the custody of British police. President Donald Trump, asked to comment on Thursday, told reporters, “I know nothing about WikiLeaks. It’s not my thing.” But in fact, Trump has a long history of discussing WikiLeaks— dating all the way back to 2010.

In the early 2010s, WikiLeaks received a great deal of attention for publishing Iraq War-related documents it had obtained from U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. At that point, Trump expressed absolute contempt for WikiLeaks. In a 2010 interview with Brian Kilmeade of Fox News fame, Trump said of WikiLeaks, “I think it’s disgraceful. I think there should be like death penalty or something.”

But that was six years before his 2016 presidential campaign. And in 2016, when WikiLeaks was publishing the hacked e-mails of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and John Podesta (Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign manager), Trump flip-flopped and had nothing but praise for Assange’s website.

During an October 10, 2016 speech in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Trump asserted, “WikiLeaks, I love WikiLeaks.” And only two days later, on October 12, 2016, Trump added, “This WikiLeaks stuff is unbelievable. It tells you the inner heart. You gotta read it.”

The following day, October 13, 2016, Trump was in Cincinnati when he said, “It’s been amazing what’s coming out on WikiLeaks.” And on Halloween 2016, Trump commented on the Democratic leaks and said, “This WikiLeaks is like a treasure trove.”

Then, on November 4, 2016, Trump commented, “Boy, I love reading those WikiLeaks.”