President Donald Trump's eldest son on Monday promoted a conspiracy that originated with the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.
The conspiracy promoted by Donald Trump Jr. alleges that the New York Times "colluded" with Hillary Clinton while she was the Secretary of State.
"The double standard never ends. Every day @realDonaldTrump’s win is that much more impressive when you realize all he was actually up against," Trump Jr. wrote on Twitter.
The tweet linked to an article published on the conservative Daily Wire website, which claimed that an email released by WikiLeaks on Sunday night was "proof" that the New York Times "colluded" with the State Department in 2010.
The email released by WikiLeaks was authored by New York Times national security reporter Scott Shane. The email shows that he provided the State Department with information about when the newspaper planned to publish articles about a trove of leaked U.S. diplomatic cables.
WikiLeaks alleged the New York Times was providing Clinton with "up to 9 days in advance to spin the revelations or create diversions."
Shane, however, dismissed the allegations as "nonsense." In a series of tweets, he explained that the newspaper worked with the State Department to protect dissidents from hostile retailation from foreign governments.
@wikileaks .1) Not sure who's writing this stuff for @WikiLeaks, but they need to talk to those who actually worked… https://t.co/Nsea5nXhe3— Scott Shane (@Scott Shane) 1514730090.0
@wikileaks .2) We had all agreed to redact the names of, say, Chinese professors and Russian dissidents who had spo… https://t.co/i8x26VKcNc— Scott Shane (@Scott Shane) 1514730211.0
@wikileaks .3) Totally standard journalistic practice. In one memorable instance, I had not taken out the name of Q… https://t.co/IiJAk6X1jv— Scott Shane (@Scott Shane) 1514730466.0
@wikileaks .4) I told the State Dept we planned to use that cable. Their Libya specialists got on the phone with me… https://t.co/zeYK4zWCA2— Scott Shane (@Scott Shane) 1514730561.0
@wikileaks .5) For that collaborative project, WikiLeaks' helpers created a very cool redaction template so that th… https://t.co/lhcaRBZmDA— Scott Shane (@Scott Shane) 1514730666.0
@wikileaks .This is nonsense. Check with the WikiLeaks volunteers who worked on this project. You'll learn WL creat… https://t.co/dYIhN1PyAb— Scott Shane (@Scott Shane) 1514731909.0
In November 2017, it was revealed that Trump Jr. had exchanged private messages with WikiLeaks on Twitter in the run up to the 2016 presidential election.
The messages have been turned over to congressional committees investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
WikiLeaks has connections to Russian military intelligence, according to a U.S. intelligence report (PDF) released in 2017. The report notes that the "Kremlin’s principal international propaganda outlet RT (formerly Russia Today) has actively collaborated with WikiLeaks."
