In the wake of Julian Assange‘s arrest at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, I was reminded of an exchange he had with Bill Maher back in the summer of 2016. During a discussion on Wikileaks’ hacking of the DNC’s emails on the August 5, 2016 edition of Real Time, Maher took the opportunity to ask Assange why he hasn’t focused on the Trump campaign.
“Why don’t you hack into Donald Trump’s tax returns?” Maher asked Assange, who spoke via satellite from the Ecuadorian embassy.
“We’re working on it,” Assange replied.
Looking back on Assange’s comments, it’s clear Wikileaks had no intention of exposing anything about Trump or the inner workings of his presidential campaign.
As the interview continued, Maher pressed the issue.
“Why haven’t we seen anything hacked from the Trump campaign?” Maher asked. “Obviously we know these came from Russia. And we also know that you do not like Hillary Clinton at all — as does not Vladimir Putin. It looks like you’re working with a bad actor, Russia, to put your thumb on the scale and basically f–k with the one person who stands in the way of us being ruled by Donald Trump.”
Maher then mentioned that former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has been critical of Wikileaks for what he called a “hostility to even modest curation.”
“He doesn’t really know the definition of curation,” Assange said, adding that he and Wikileaks helped Snowden seek asylum and “saved” him.
“I know Edward is trying to get a pardon at the end of the Obama presidency,” Assange argued. “He’s playing that game, I understand.”
Watch the entire interview below:
Featured image via screen grab
