White House press secretary Sean Spicer shut down a reporter’s question about reports Thursday that former U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage visited the very same embassy that has granted asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
At Thursday’s press conference Spicer seemed somewhat surprised and flustered that Farage’s visit to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London was even brought up, saying, “this is silly” and “I don’t keep his schedule.”
Assange, who has resided in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012, has denied that the Russian government, or any state party, was WikiLeaks’ source.
BuzzFeed first reported the visit Thursday. According to the report, Farage spent about 40 minutes in the compound, along with Christian Mitchell, head of operations at radio station LBC, where Farage hosts a show. Upon his exit, Farage refused to tell reporters what the visit was about and did not reveal if he actually met with Assange.
Farage was a figurehead in the successful campaign to get his country to vote for a “Brexit” from the European Union last summer. He is also a vocal supporter of President Trump, and the two have met a number of times, including for dinner at Trump International Hotel in Washington at the end of last month.
Later in the day Thursday, Assange held a press conference during which he said his organization is working with technology companies to protect them against the CIA’s alleged hacking methods that were detailed in a massive document dump earlier this week.
