Julian Assange said that he had rejected a request for help last year from the head of a data firm that worked for President Donald Trump and is now facing congressional investigation, The New York Times reports. The founder of WikiLeaks wrote on Twitter that the chief executive of Cambridge Analytica, Alexander Nix had approached him before last year’s elections. Cambridge Analytica worked for Trump in the final months before the election.
Assange only revealed that he rejected the request, but did not explain what exactly Nix wanted from him.
“I can confirm an approach by Cambridge Analytica [prior to November last year] and can confirm that it was rejected by WikiLeaks,” Assange wrote on Twitter.
Afterwards, he wrote that he only confirmed the approach and the rejection, not the subject. Still, The Daily Beast reported that Nix had asked from Assange for copies of more than 30,000 emails deleted from Hillary Clinton’s private server. It is not clear when did the correspondence happened, although some media reported that it was in the summer 2016.
The records of the Federal Election Commission show that Cambridge Analytica was paid by the campaign of Ted Cruz through early June, but by early summer it began wooing the Trump campaign. The owner of the company, Robert Mercer, first supported Cruz but then switched his allegiance to Trump.
Last year, WikiLeaks posted a search-able database of more than 50 thousand emails from Clinton’s private server, but Trump wanted the 30,000 missing emails and publicly asked Russia to find them.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said in July.
The communication between Nix and Assange, could link more closely Trump’s campaign and WikiLeaks. Thousand of emails stolen from Democratic officials were published by WikiLeaks and the U.S. intelligence agencies believe that the documents were originally obtained by hackers linked with Russia.
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