Sarah Palin apologizes to Julian Assange, thanks him for ‘exposing the truth’

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin praised Julian Assange’s interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday, thanking the controversial WikiLeaks founder for “exposing the truth” about the Democratic Party and its “collusion” with the liberal media.

Mrs. Palin, the 2008 vice presidential candidate, took to Facebook to promote Mr. Assange’s interview, in which he continued to reject American intelligence claims that the Russian government played a role in hacking the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. WikiLeaks spent the last few weeks of the election leaking thousands of hacked emails, which Mrs. Palin said finally “opened people’s eyes” to the inner dealings of the left.

“Exposing the truth re: the Left having been oh-so-guilty of atrocious actions and attitudes of which they’ve falsely accused others,” Mrs. Palin wrote. “The media collusion that hid what many on the Left have been supporting is shocking.

“This important information that finally opened people’s eyes to democrat candidates and operatives would not have been exposed were it not for Julian Assange,” she said.

Her comments mark a 180-degree turn from previous criticism she’s made about Mr. Assange since WikiLeaks published hacked emails from her account in 2008.

“I apologize for condemning Assange when he published my infamous (and proven noncontroversial, relatively boring) emails years ago,” she wrote Tuesday.

In 2010, Mrs. Palin called Mr. Assange “an anti-American operative with blood on his hands” after WikiLeaks published a series of leaks provided by now-convicted Army Pfc. Chelsea Manning. She said she still stands by protecting U.S. troops.

“As I said at the time of being targeted and my subsequent condemnation, though, the line must be drawn before our troops or innocent lives deserving protection would be put at risk as a result of published emails,” she wrote.

“Julian, I apologize,” she added.

Mrs. Palin provided a link to Mr. Hannity’s interview with Mr. Assange, who has been living under diplomatic protection at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012. She also urged readers to watch “Snowden,” a new film about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, which she called “quite enlightening.”