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Breaking: WikiLeaks Now Opposed to Leaks

Nothing is real and everything is possible.

By , a global affairs journalist and the author of The Influence of Soros and Bad Jews, and , a diplomacy and national security reporter at Foreign Policy.
assange-crop
assange-crop

There should be some things in the world on which you can utterly rely. The sky is blue. The earth is an oblate spheroid. The Washington football team will disappoint. WikiLeaks likes leaks.

There should be some things in the world on which you can utterly rely. The sky is blue. The earth is an oblate spheroid. The Washington football team will disappoint. WikiLeaks likes leaks.

Apparently not.

Lest you think this is entirely hypocritical, WikiLeaks later clarified that they are not against leaks, but rather pseudo-leaks.

If a leak benefits the current White House, it is a pseudo-leak. If it benefits the Kremlin, however, it is just a good, old-fashioned, noble leak.

Trump, for his part, took to Twitter to call for a congressional investigation — not of the Russian interference in the election, but rather the leaking of that intel to NBC News.

It’s not the first time Trump’s asked for some investigative help. On the campaign trail, he urged Russia to hack his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, who was embroiled in a scandal over using a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State. Russia, it appears, was all too happy to comply.

He hasn’t called for a follow-on investigation into the hacking and leaking of Democratic emails, though it appears the Senate has him covered. But then, those were evidently leaks, not pseudo-leaks.

Photo credit: Tolga Akmen/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Emily Tamkin is a global affairs journalist and the author of The Influence of Soros and Bad Jews. Twitter: @emilyctamkin

Robbie Gramer is a diplomacy and national security reporter at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @RobbieGramer

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