Fired FBI Director James Comey needn’t look far for work: WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange responded to Mr. Comey’s sudden dismissal by encouraging him to join the ranks of his infamous antisecrecy website.
“WikiLeaks would be happy to consider hiring James Comey to help lead its D.C. office should he like to properly investigate the U.S. government,” Mr. Assange tweeted Tuesday.
“Mr. Comey knows where many bodies are buried. Working for WikiLeaks is fulfilling,” Mr. Assange continued. “James — don’t become another lobbyist.”
Mr. Assange’s overture less than an hour after the White House announced the Mr. Comey’s dismissal, roughly a third of the way into an expected 10-year tenure.
The White House said Tuesday that Mr. Comey was terminated over his handling of an FBI probe involving President Trump’s rival during the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, and her usage of a private email server while secretary of state.
The unexpected termination has nonetheless raised concerns given Mr. Comey’s role in an ongoing investigation surrounding the president’s own 2016 bid, and WikiLeaks encouraged individuals with information concerning his firing to securely submit them online, tweeting: “If James Comey or any other former or current FBI officers have information as to why he was fired, we want to help.”
The U.S. intelligence community concluded in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin utilized state-sponsored hackers, propaganda outlets and internet conduits, WikiLeaks included, to wage an influence campaign intended to hinder Mrs. Clinton’s odds of winning last year’s White House race.
The U.S. intelligence community specifically attests Russian hackers compromised targets associated with Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, then pilfered internal correspondence before ultimately passing the files to Mr. Assange’s website for publication.
Russia has denied responsibility for the hacks, Mr. Trump has adamantly rejected allegations of collusions and Mr. Assange has insisted that the Russian government wasn’t WikiLeaks’ source.
The FBI, House and Senate are each separately investigating related claims involving the election, including whether Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign and transition team colluded with Moscow. WikiLeaks, meanwhile, has been since 2010 the target of a Department of Justice probe, which was recently widened by the Trump administration to cover subsequent leaks, including the website’s ongoing publication of files concerning the CIA’s offensive cyber abilities.
Commenting on the unauthorized CIA disclosures last week, Mr. Comey accused WikiLeaks of being purveyors of “intelligence porn” during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“[A]ll of us care deeply about the First Amendment and the ability of a free press to get information about our work and publish it. To my mind it crosses a line when it moves from being about trying to educate a public and instead becomes about intelligence porn,” Mr. Comey testified May 3.
“I realize reasonable people struggle to draw a line but surely there’s conduct that’s so far to the side of the line that we can all agree that there is nothing that even smells journalist about some of this conduct,” he added.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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