
Want to Know Julian Assange’s Endgame? He Told You a Decade Ago - hackuser
https://www.wired.com/2016/10/want-know-julian-assanges-endgame-told-decade-ago/
======
chinese_dan
Regardless, he is a hero. He's making political corruption and media collusion
front and center.

I find it disconcerting when tax returns are illegally obtained and released
about Trump, all of the mainstream news organizations focus on the content.
Yet, when there are hacked emails released about Clinton and the DNC, the
focus is on the illegal behavior and the 'Russians' and that we should ignore
the content.

~~~
hackuser
> tax returns are illegally obtained and released about Trump

The NY Times did nothing illegal.[0] The person who provided the tax return
(actually one page of a return, afaik) might have broken the law; we don't
know. There are rumors that it was Marla Maples, his wife at the time, in
which case their joint tax return was hers as much as his, and hers to release
(unless there's some rule preventing one spouse releasing a joint return
without the other's permission).

Another major difference is that the NY Times carefully vetted the tax return
to make sure it was accurate; they found and talked to Trump's accountant at
the time, used other information to corroborate it, and gave Trump an
opportunity to respond.

Wikileaks, in contrast, publishes information without any vetting, making them
a tool for lies and propaganda campaigns.

> we should ignore the content

How do you know it's accurate? Certainly, an anonymous Internet source is not
at all credible, many people have motives to (and many actually do) spread
lies and falsify documents during a political campaign, and Russian
intelligence, which has a track record of such things[1] and is not at all a
credible source, is very likely is behind the theft of the information.[2]

\----

[0]
[https://concurringopinions.com/archives/2016/10/fan-125-1-fi...](https://concurringopinions.com/archives/2016/10/fan-125-1-first-
amendment-news-10-first-amendment-experts-comment-on-legality-of-nyt-release-
of-trumps-tax-returns.html)

[1] [http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-security-usa-
idUKKCN...](http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-russia-security-usa-
idUKKCN12D13O)

[2] [http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/13/politics/russia-us-
election/in...](http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/13/politics/russia-us-
election/index.html)

