WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has constantly hinted at some sort of October surprise that could potentially swing the election in favor of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump due to how damaging it could be to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, and it may happen this week. What will the document dump entail?
Here are five things you need to know about Assange’s much-anticipated document release.
1. Assange has been very cryptic about what the release will be. In an August interview with Fox News host Megyn Kelly, Assange said, “I don’t want to give it away, but it’s a variety of documents, from different types of institutions that are associated with the election campaign, some quite unexpected angles, some quite interesting, some even entertaining.”
What exactly those documents are remains unclear, but there is reason to believe that it may have to do with the following:
2. Assange may have gained access to Clinton’s deleted emails. There were at least 30,000 emails that Clinton deleted when her email scandal first broke. Apparently Assange found a way to get a hold of them. In a recent interview with RT, Assange discusses how Clinton’s deleted emails reveal ties to the Russian government, donations from Saudi Arabia to the Clinton Foundation, and her involvement in arms deals with ISIS. This is not information that Assange would be privy to unless he obtained Clinton’s emails, and if what he is saying is in fact true, it would certainly be the damaging information that could sink Clinton’s presidential chances.
Assange’s full interview with RT can be seen below:
3. WikiLeaks’s announcement on Tuesday was postponed…or was it? Initial reports suggested that Assange would make a major announcement on Tuesday from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy – where Assange currently resides – but then it was postponed “due to security concerns.”
However, WikiLeaks will still be holding a press conference on Tuesday that will feature a video link that could possibly involve the release of the document dump, but that remains to be seen. Trump’s scuzzbag political henchman Roger Stone appears to be confident about a coming document dump from WikiLeaks:
Wednesday@HillaryClinton is done. #Wikileaks.
— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) October 2, 2016
I have total confidence that @wikileaks and my hero Julian Assange will educate the American people soon #LockHerUp
— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) October 3, 2016
Stone isn’t necessarily a credible source, but maybe he has inside information from WikiLeaks.
4. A new report alleges that Clinton once seriously wanted to use a drone strike against Assange.
Hillary Clinton on Assange “Can’t we just drone this guy” — report https://t.co/S7tPrl2QCZ pic.twitter.com/qy2EQBa48y
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 3, 2016
The report comes from a site called True Pundit, so take it with a grain of salt. But WikiLeaks seems to suggest that this video has validated the report:
Democrat strategist Bob Beckel, now at CNN, called for Julian Assange to be assassinated after Clinton cable leak pic.twitter.com/9L2ixl24Er
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 3, 2016
This isn’t necessarily indicative that Clinton wanted to kill Assange, as Beckel is a leftist pundit who speaks for himself and does not seem to be an official surrogate for the Clinton campaign.
If WikiLeaks follows through and unleashes its document dump, then maybe they will reveal whether or not Clinton actually did consider a drone strike against Assange.
5. Assange has already proven that he can turn the American political world upside down. Back in July, WikiLeaks unleashed a treasure trove of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee that revealed the organization’s bias against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) as well as collusion between the DNC and the media. Debbie Wasserman Schultz even had to resign from her position as chairwoman of the DNC as a result of the released emails.
Assange is certainly not a figure to be celebrated, but what happened in July shows what he’s capable of, which should make this coming week a very interesting one, that might just decide the election.