President Trump pleaded ignorance Thursday about details of the arrest of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange in London, saying he knew “nothing” about the secret-spilling organization or its leader.
“I know nothing about Wikileaks. It’s not my thing,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, responding to Assange’s arrest by British authorities after being charged with committing a 2010 computer crime in the U.S.
During the 2016 campaign, Trump repeatedly and publicly relished WikiLeaks’ release of hacked Democratic emails, declaring “I love WikiLeaks.” Trump campaign links to Assange later were a focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russia’s role in the election.
“I know there is something having to do with Julian Assange. I’ve been seeing what’s happening with Assange and that will be a determination, I would imagine, mostly the attorney general,” Trump said Thursday.
Speaking specifically about Assange, Trump said, “I know nothing really about him. It’s not my deal in life.” On Assange’s arrest, Trump said, “I don’t really have an opinion. I think the attorney general will be involved with that, and he will make a decision.”
It’s not Trump’s first time seeking distance from Assange and WikiLeaks.
“I don’t know anything about him, really,” Trump said in November after being asked about reports of a sealed criminal case against the Australian-born transparency activist.
Assange claimed asylum in Ecuador’s London embassy in June 2012, claiming a Swedish sex crime investigation was a ruse to extradite him to the U.S. over Chelsea Manning’s 2010 leak of military and diplomatic secrets. On Thursday, he was expelled from the embassy, and federal prosecutors in Virginia revealed he was charged with conspiring with Manning to hack U.S. computer systems.
The Obama Justice Department reportedly decided against charging Assange, concluding that such a case could open the door to prosecuting traditional journalists for reporting government secrets.
