Jared Kushner-Owned NY Observer Reportedly Pushed Pro-WikiLeaks Stories

The New York Observer, the newspaper previously owned and published by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, reportedly pushed a series of flattering stories about WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, from 2014-2016.

According to Foreign Policy, the string of pro-WikiLeaks stories began with a glowing profile of Assange in Oct. 2014.

From there, the Observer went on to publish a series of pro-WikiLeaks pieces, saluting — among other things — the revelations from the DNC’s hacked emails.

Ken Kurson, ex-Observer editor-in-chief, denies a direct connection to Assange.

From Foreign Policy’s report:

Kurson maintains that he had no direct connection to Assange and that the contributors who wrote the pieces do not represent the site because they are not full-time employees. “The writers who contacted Assange…were freelancers,” Kurson wrote. “They were not Observer employees and didn’t operate on Observer’s behalf.”

Sources familiar with the Observer disputed those claims, saying that Kurson selected freelancers and articles for publication. “Ken used to just take control of stuff that other people wouldn’t like,” said one source who worked with him. “He’d show up with the finished product and tell people to run it.”

Kurson also told Foreign Policy, “I have never communicated in any way with Julian Assange and this sort of fact-free, evidenceless charge is analogous to pizzagate and other totally ludicrous conspiracies.”

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