Washington: Donald Trump jnr has confirmed he had multiple online conversations during the 2016 presidential campaign with WikiLeaks, which last year released a hacked trove of Democrats' emails.
WikiLeaks sent a series of requests - some acted upon - to Donald Trump jnr in the run-up the 2016 US election, according to a report in The Atlantic.
The article says the private messages reveal a number of "increasingly bold requests" by the "radical transparency" group to the son of the then presidential candidate.
WikiLeaks, led by Australian Julian Assange, suggested stories for candidate Donald Trump to comment on Twitter, the messages show.
They also request that Trump suggest Assange be appointed as Australian ambassador to the US.
"???Wikileaks made a series of increasingly bold requests, including asking for Trump's tax returns, urging the Trump campaign on election day to reject the results of the election as rigged, and requesting that the President-elect tell Australia to appoint Julian Assange ambassador to the United States," the Atlantic reported.
The rationale, according to WikiLeaks, was that the Trump's endorsement of Assange would halt or slow legal efforts related to rape charges in Sweden, something Assange has long disputed.
"They won't do it but it will send the right signals to Australia, UK + Sweden to start following the law and stop bending it to ingratiate themselves with the Clintons," the message said, suggesting the rape charges were driven by the then Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The President's son in recent weeks handed over the direct messages exchanged over Twitter to several congressional committees investigating Russia's attempts to disrupt the election, according to the officials.
In September, Trump jnr acknowledged in a closed-door interview with the Senate Judiciary Committee that he had corresponded with the group during the campaign, the officials said.
The correspondence, which began weeks before the November 8, 2016, election and continued through much of this year, is the second time it has been publicly revealed that Trump jnr communicated with people and organisations with ties to the Russian government who were trying to undermine Hillary Clinton's presidential chances.
In July, The New York Times reported that Trump jnr met with Russians in June 2016 who said they had damaging information on Clinton, and that the information was part of the Russian government's support for Donald Trump. By publishing thousands of hacked emails at the time, US intelligence agencies believe WikiLeaks was acting as a conduit for Russian operatives.
The younger Trump on Monday night released several screen shots of his messages with WikiLeaks. His lawyer, Alan Futerfas, said the documents were "selectively leaked" among the thousands that have been turned over to congressional investigators.
"We can say with confidence that we have no concerns about these documents and any questions raised about them have been easily answered in the appropriate forum," Futerfas said in a statement.
"Hiya, it'd be great if you guys could comment on/push this story," WikiLeaks said in a message to Trump jnr on Oct. 3, 2016, that included a quote from Clinton in which she said she wanted to "just drone" Assange.
"Already did that earlier today," Trump jnr said in response. "It's amazing what she can get away with."
In a message a week later, WikiLeaks asked Trump jnr to have his father tweet a link to a site where users could search through hacked emails from Democrats.
"There's many great stories the press are missing and we're sure some of your follows will find it," WikiLeaks said, adding that the group had just released more emails stolen from Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta.
Trump jnr did not respond, but 15 minutes later, his father tweeted: "Very little pick-up by the dishonest media of incredible information provided by WikiLeaks. So dishonest! Rigged system!"
Assange said on Twitter that he could not confirm whether the group had corresponded with Trump jnr.
"WikiLeaks loves its pending publications and ignores those who ask for details," Assange said. He said that thousands of people had asked the group about the hacked emails it had published.
Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the messages, if real, are "one more example of Russians, Russian agents - in this case WikiLeaks - reaching out to senior officials in the Trump Organisation or Trump campaign."
The last message Trump jnr received from WikiLeaks was in July, shortly after The Times reported that he had corresponded with the Russians promising "dirt" on Clinton.
"Hi Don. Sorry to hear about your problems," WikiLeaks said. "We have an idea that may help a little. We are VERY interested in confidentially obtaining and publishing a copy of the email(s) cited in the New York Times today." Shortly thereafter, Trump jnr released the emails himself.
Assange has lived in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since June 2012. Although Sweden dropped the rape charges in May, Britain has confirmed the ex-hacker could still be arrested for skipping bail in that nation.
Assange fears he could be extradited to the US where he could stand trial for his role in the Cablegate releases, which exposed classified US information.
New York Times, Fairfax Media
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