Assange Says Wikileaks is 'Working On' Hacking Donald Trump's Tax Return (slate.com)

Julian Assange made headlines Friday when talk-show host Bill Maher asked him why Wikileaks wasn't hacking into Donald's Trump's tax returns. "Well, we're working on it," Assange replied. But it was apparently the culmination of a larger back-and-forth. An anonymous reader quotes Slate: Earlier in the interview, Maher said it sure looked like Assange was "working with a bad actor, Russia" to hurt "the one person who stands in the way of us being ruled by Donald Trump." Assange then tried to move the conversation toward what he thought was a smoking gun against Maher, saying he had found there was a "William Maher" who "gave a Clinton-affiliated entity $1 million." Maher explained he had famously given President Obama $1 million in 2012 and he never tried to hide it. When Assange pressed on whether he had also given money to Clinton, Maher shot back: "Fuck no."
Slate has a video of the entire interview, and while Friday WikiLeaks was publicizing Assange's appearance on the show on Twitter, Saturday they were tweeting a clarification. "WikiLeaks isn't 'working on' hacking Trump's tax-returns. Claim is a joke from a comedy show. We are 'working on' encouraging whistleblowers."

Comments

Hacking

[Dog-Cow]

So Wikileaks has gone from technically illegal activity to morally-wrong activity?

A tax return is not like memos of secret negotiations or illegal spy activities. It is a document filed by a private citizen with its government. There is absolutely no moral ground to insisting it be provided to the public.

Re:Hacking

[quantaman]

So Wikileaks has gone from technically illegal activity to morally-wrong activity?

A tax return is not like memos of secret negotiations or illegal spy activities. It is a document filed by a private citizen with its government. There is absolutely no moral ground to insisting it be provided to the public.

And Assange exposing what he thought was a private donation by Bill Maher?

I found that a bit distasteful, while I can see the public's right to know there's something off about trying to shame someone by surprising them with illicitly obtained private information.

Either way I think the big issue with Wikileaks and the DNC emails is they weren't a leak, they were a hack.

For a leak you need an insider who thinks things are so wrong that they're willing to risk their career, and even jail time, by leaking the information. It's a very random happenstance and tends to happen only when things are particularly bad.

But hacks tend to favour the more powerful entities (like Russia) who can dispatch sophisticated technical resources against their enemies. You don't need a massive egregious wrong, if you have an enemy you just need to hack their servers and go digging until you find bad. Russia didn't leak the DNC emails because the Democratic party was favouring Clinton, they leaked them because they were looking for anything to damage Clinton.

Wikileaks has transitioned from an organization that enabled insiders to hold powerful entities responsible to an organization that helps powerful entities attack opponents.

Re: Shut down Wikileaks

[Anonymous Coward]

No one likes assrange or wikileaks, they are just another corrupt political party.

Re: So the tax returns aren't public?

[Anonymous Coward]

If he didn't have such a scandalous history I might agree, but this is someone running for president who filed for bankruptcy as recently as 2009. I'm pretty sure he has already asked Obama to present his.

Clinton Transcripts

[stinkyjak]

When are we going to get some transparency from Clinton? I would rather an idiot, that wants to do good, be selected as our president. I will take the idiot over the clever con that will strategically cheat us out of all we have. Let us see the transcripts. Let us understand why so many large and powerful entities are funding the Clinton campaign.

Re:Shut down Wikileaks

[sittingnut]

Last I checked, hacking to access private information is . ...

checked where?
there is nothing unethical about revealing information that shows unethical (including criminal) activity. or revealing private information about harmful institutions that engage in criminal activities.

in case of snowden with nsa, and in case of wikileaks with regard to hillary supporting dnc, revealing hidden information was ethical.

of course supporters of evil entities damaged by such revelations will claim such actions are "illegal and unethical"(eg you and maher)

Re: So the tax returns aren't public?

[covalamin]

No one believes an anonymous coward! Post with your main account if you want to have a n intelligent discussion. Anyway, your main reason for voting for the other guy is wrong. Trump would be prevented from doing much of anything by the House and Senate. Hillary is the one who could do some damage .... or maybe some good. Thus the question is do you really believe Hillary is going to do more good than harm? Personally, I'd rather have a phony outsider who has a love for his country than a corrupt politician who has repeatedly turned their back on Americans.

I can't believe so many people are this stupid

[poity]

It's been a decade since Wikileaks captured the public's attention, and most people still don't seem to understand that it's only a publisher that relies on others to provide info. I figured Bill Maher would know better. I figured journalists would know better. But they've all been speculating on the "Why hasn't Wikileaks hacked Trump yet?" question for the past week, as if they didn't know what Wikileaks is about.

Are they all this stupid, or just pretending to be fucking obtuse?

No... they MUST be pretending. Bill Maher has interviewed Assange in the past -- without questioning his motives or insinuating that Assange/Wikileaks exfiltrated secret documents themselves. He has demonstrated in the past that he knows Wikileaks is only a publisher. As well, there have been thousands of articles in the mainstream press since Collateral Murder and Cablegate, and they did not cast Assange/Wikileaks as hackers or to insinuate that they were enemy collaborators. Journalists have demonstrated in the past that they know Wikileaks is only a publisher.

No... they DO know better, I'm certain ALL of them know better. But they're so full of rage that no one has yet leaked Trump's info to Wikileaks while their favorite Clinton is being undermined, they've become the mirror image of the Fox-watching "Fairness and Balance"-demanding trogs that the left so often mocks and derides.

Re: So the tax returns aren't public?

[Anonymous Coward]

Romney released a single year of his tax returns, and that was only after considerable pressure from the left. Do not try to pretend that Republican candidates are some kind of bastion of transparency.

The Clintons have released their tax returns dating back to 1977 -- 40 years worth -- and have always been open with the information (ie: they were releasing this information publicly back when Bill Clinton was running for presidency).

So, Trump, where are your tax returns?

Re: So the tax returns aren't public?

[ITRambo]

I'm more concerned about Hillary's current inability to continually focus for long periods of time during campaign speeches. Maybe she's tired. But there are recent videos of her speeches where she just freezes up and needs to be nudged to continue talking. The long brain farts scare me more than whether she's corrupt or not.