A security guard at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London broke protocol when he left his post to receive a mysterious package from a disguised man in the summer of 2016.
That very same day, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who was living there in political asylum, informed Russian hackers that he received a tranche of files after asking for material related to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and was preparing to release them, according to special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian meddling in the U.S. election.
This peculiar delivery, which took place on July 18 — the same day the Republican National Convention began in Cleveland — was reported this week by CNN, which obtained surveillance images from outside the embassy. The delivery man can be seen wearing a mask, sunglasses, and a backpack.
Although the security company that recorded the encounter recommended the guard be replaced, the Ecuadorian Embassy declined to remove him.
Several days later, on July 22, WikiLeaks released 22,000 stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee, some of which showed DNC officials expressing bias in favor of Clinton over Democratic primary challenger Bernie Sanders. The release of the emails prompted DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign.
CNN obtained surveillance reports put together for the Ecuadorian government by UC Global, a private Spanish security company. They show that Assange was using the Ecuadorian Embassy as a command center to run WikiLeaks operations. He was able to obtain enhanced hardware to help with data transfers and met with Russians and German hackers Andrew Müller-Maguhn and Bernd Fix.
The private security company concluded there was “no doubt that there is evidence” that Assange had ties to Russian intelligence, although the WikiLeaks founder has long denied working for the Russian government and that his leaks source was outside of the Kremlin. Assange also claimed he would publish damaging information about President Trump if he had obtained any.
A U.S. intelligence community report released in January 2017 stated with “high confidence” the Russian government relayed stolen information to WikiLeaks and the Kremlin worked to tilt the election in Trump’s favor.
After more WikiLeaks publications ensued in the run-up to the election, including stolen emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, Assange’s access to the internet and influence within the embassy was stymied only after the U.S. publicly blamed Russia for hacking Democratic officials and informed Ecuadorian officials of concern that the WikiLeaks chief was helping the Russians interfere in the election and he needed to be stopped.
After the publication of the security report’s findings, former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa admitted his country was aware Assange was meddling in the U.S. election from inside the embassy in London but denied that his government would allow WikiLeaks to commit such mischief.
“We did notice that he was interfering in the elections, and we do not allow that because we have principles, very clear values, as we would not like anyone to interfere in our elections,” he told CNN. “We are not going to allow that to happen with a foreign country and friend like the US.”
Assange’s asylum was revoked by Correa’s successor, Lenin Moreno, earlier this year and is now in a British prison for a year for skipping bail before possibly being extradited to the U.S. where he faces charges unrelated to the 2016 election.
Clinton has blamed WikiLeaks, among others, for her defeat to Trump in the 2016 election.
