WaPo: CNN Misreported WikiLeaks Providing Trump Access to Email Tranche
New information suggests that CNN’s recent report on the Trump campaign having early access to WikiLeaks’ trove of documents is inaccurate.
Earlier today, CNN said that Congressional investigators obtained an email that was sent last year to President Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and other senior company officials. The email reportedly contained tools that would allow users to get an early look at the hacked information Wikileaks released during the last months of the 2016 election.
However, Washington Post reports that CNN got the email dates wrong, and the decryption key would’ve only led Trump officials to information that was already publicly available. CNN says the email was sent on September 4, though WaPo says it was sent on September 14, a day after the documents in question were released.
The full email — which was first described to CNN as being sent on Sept. 4, 10 days earlier — indicates that the writer may have simply been flagging information that was already widely available.
Wall Street Journal‘s Rebecca Ballhaus also reported this bit of information on Twitter today.
The Sept. 14 email to Trump campaign advertising WikiLeaks emails promoted publicly available info, was riddled with typos and came from a Trump backer who had given $40 to the campaign months earlier, per email viewed by @WSJ.
— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) December 8, 2017
The email to the Trump Organization was sent by a “Michael Erickson.” Congressional investigators are reportedly trying to determine its authenticity before incorporating it into their findings of the connections between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks.
Trump Jr. told the House Intelligence Committee yesterday that he has “no recollection” of the email, and here’s the most recent statement his lawyer has offered on the matter:
NEW STATEMENT: Trump Jr’s attorney responds to our story. “We understand that the media reported 12 hours prior to this email that the DNC emails had been hacked or leaked. We do not know who Mike Erickson is. We have no idea who he is. We never responded to the email.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 8, 2017
Mediaite has reached out to CNN for comment and will update when we hear back.
[Image via screengrab]
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