WikiLeaks proposed to Trump jnr that Assange be Australian ambassador to the US

Wikileaks proposed to Donald Trump Jr that Julian Assange be Australian ambassador to the US. Photo / AP

The US President's eldest son, Donald Trump jnr, exchanged private messages with WikiLeaks on Twitter last year, the Atlantic reports.

Writer Julia Ioffe reports that the correspondence was given to US lawmakers in Congress investigating possible Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

She writes: "WikiLeaks made a series of increasingly bold requests, including asking for Trump's tax returns, urging the Trump campaign on Election Day to reject the results of the election as rigged, and requesting that the president-elect tell Australia to appoint Julian Assange ambassador to the United States".

According to the Atlantic, the "largely one-sided" correspondence continued until July 2017 and mostly involved WikiLeaks sending messages to Trump jnr that he didn't respond to. But, the Atlantic writes, "he at times appears to have acted on its requests ... At no point during the 10-month correspondence does Trump jnr rebuff WikiLeaks".

WikiLeaks published stolen emails from the US Democratic National Committee and Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta ahead of the election. The US intelligence community has linked the releases to a Russian Government attempts to interfere in the election. WikiLeaks has denied any connections to the Kremlin.

In October, WikiLeaks sent Trump jnr a message: "Btw we just released Podesta Emails Part 4." It provided him with a link. Two days later, on October 14, 2016, Trump jnr tweeted out the link.

WikiLeaks asked for Trump's tax returns, which the President has refused to release. Trump jnr did not respond.

WikiLeaks wrote: "If we publish them it will dramatically improve the perception of our impartiality. That means that the vast amount of stuff that we are publishing on Clinton will have much higher impact, because it won't be perceived as coming from a 'pro-Trump' 'pro-Russia' source".

In December, WikiLeaks wrote: "In relation to Mr. Assange: Obama/Clinton placed pressure on Sweden, UK and Australia (his home country) to illicitly go after Mr. Assange. It would be real easy and helpful for your dad to suggest that Australia appoint Assange ambassador to [Washington,] DC."

The WikiLeaks Twitter account sent a direct message to Trump jnr in September 2016, telling him that an anti-Trump site run by a political action committee was "about to launch".

Wikileaks asked Don Jr. to get Trump to convince Australia to nominate Julian Assange as US ambassador https://t.co/CT898JLX4R

— Politics Insider (@Politicsinsider) November 13, 2017

"The PAC is a recycled pro-Iraq war PAC. We have guessed the password. It is 'putintrump.' See 'About' for who is behind it. Any comments?" WikiLeaks wrote, the Atlantic reported. "Off the record I don't know who that is, but I'll ask around," Trump jnr said.

WikiLeaks asked Trump jnr to "push" a story in conservative media that alleged Clinton joked about wanting to "drone" its founder Assange. Trump jnr responded that he "already did that earlier today".

A lawyer for Trump jnr, Alan Futerfas, told the Atlantic: "we can say with confidence that we have no concerns about these documents and any questions raised about them have been easily answered in the appropriate forum."

Trump jnr met a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower last June that he said he went to after being offered damaging information on Clinton.

One of the weirdest things about Trump Jr.'s contact with WikiLeaks: He told Kellyanne Conway, Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner and Brad Parscale about it....Why? https://t.co/9DMjatbWmX

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) November 13, 2017