WikiLeaks founder and editor-in-chief Julian Assange said on Tuesday, without offering any proof, that Hillary Clinton and intelligence officials “close to” Vice President Mike Pence are working to undermine Donald Trump’s presidency in an effort to replace him with his vice president.
In the first of a pair of tweets from an account WikiLeaks said was activated by its founder, Assange claimed that Trump’s 2016 presidential election opponent Hillary Clinton stated privately this month that she is “pushing for a Pence takeover.” He claimed Clinton views Pence as “predictable hence defeatable.”
Clinton stated privately this month that she is quietly pushing for a Pence takeover. She stated that Pence is predictable hence defeatable.
— Julian Assange ⌛ (@JulianAssange) March 14, 2017
The second tweet alleges two unnamed intelligence community officials “close to Pence” stated privately this month that they are planning on a “Pence takeover.” Assange did not say whether that means they are behind the plans or if they are simply expecting a takeover. He also said the two intelligence officials didn’t state whether Pence agrees with the takeover.
Two IC officials close to Pence stated privately this month that they are planning on a Pence takeover. Did not state if Pence agrees.
— Julian Assange ⌛ (@JulianAssange) March 14, 2017
The Washington Examiner has reached out to both Pence’s and Clinton’s offices for comment.
In a radio interview with Laura Ingraham, Pence said Assange’s tweets are “absurd” and “frankly offensive.”
“I would find all of that dialogue to be absurd and frankly offensive,” Pence said. “It is the greatest honor of my life to serve shoulder-to-shoulder with the 45th president of the United States. To see his leadership every day, to see the compassion that he has for the American people every day. I would dismiss that out of hand and tell you that I’m just, I’m so excited about the progress that we’ve been made strengthening this country, protecting this country, reviving this country’s economy and all credit goes to President Donald Trump.”
After the interview, Assange noted that the plan that his sources talked about was impeachment, and not any other kind of action.
It should be noted that both the officials close to Pence and Hillary Clinton spoke of moving towards an ‘impeachment’ not other action.
— Julian Assange ⌛ (@JulianAssange) March 14, 2017
The intelligence community published a report in January concluding that Russia worked to tip the 2016 election in Trump’s favor through a series of hacks of Democratic officials’ emails. The report said that Russian operatives chose websites like WikiLeaks to publish the material — a claim that WikiLeaks denies.
WikiLeaks published last week the first in a series of what it claims are documents stolen from the CIA’s secret hacking program, calling it the “Vault 7” leak, which shows the agency’s capability to break into a number of devices.
Several right-wing news outlets, like Breitbart News and the Federalist, have run stories in recent days alleging that former President Barack Obama is developing a “shadow government” to take down Trump’s administration. These articles follow a number of leaks from unnamed officials that have raised questions about the Trump team’s ties to Russia and Trump’s assertion, without proof, that Obama ordered a wiretap of Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign.