Robert Mueller painted President Trump’s repeated praise of WikiLeaks as beyond problematic during his testimony Wednesday.
The former special counsel passed judgment during his appearance before the House Intelligence Committee. Rep. Mike Quigley, a Democrat from Illinois, read him a series of statements in which Trump expressed his “love” for WikiLeaks, the organization that released damaging information about Hillary Clinton at opportune moments for the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential contest.
“This Wikileaks is like a treasure trove,” the president wrote in one tweet that was read aloud.
“Problematic is an understatement,” Mueller told Quigley, adding, “in terms of giving some hope or some boost to what is and should be illegal activity.”
Quigley also quizzed Mueller on communications between WikiLeaks and Donald Trump. Jr., in which the president’s eldest son agreed to circulate a comment from Clinton saying she wanted to “just drone” WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
[Also read: Trump says he knows ‘nothing’ about Julian Assange or WikiLeaks]
“It’s disturbing and also subject to investigation,” the former FBI director replied.
Mueller also agreed to the suggestion that Assange’s group could be described “as a hostile intelligence service.” He answered: “Yes.”
WikiLeaks was a focus on the federal Russia investigation after it published hacked materials from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign chairman, John Podesta, ahead of the 2016 election. One emails release coincided with the dissemination of a recording from Trump’s appearance in 2005 on Access Hollywood, where he could be heard bragging about assaulting women.
U.S. intelligence believes WikiLeaks was given the information from Russian-linked hackers, an assessment WikiLeaks and Assange deny.
