Is WikiLeaks Releasing Hillary Clinton’s 33K Missing Emails? Kim Dotcom’s Cryptic Tweet Raises Speculation
WikiLeaks and Kim Dotcom could be collaborating on a plan to release Hillary Clinton’s 33,000 missing emails, with a cryptic tweet raising the hopes of Clinton’s critics online.
Clinton’s campaign has been plagued by the prospect that the emails, which had been deleted from her private server and not accessed by the FBI during their investigation into her use of a private server, could one day be released. Although Clinton enjoys a clear lead over Donald Trump in national polling, there is a prospect that those emails could contain harmful revelations that deliver a major blow to her chances of winning.
There is a possibility that they will soon be revealed. A series of exchanges between Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom and WikiLeaks on Wednesday appeared to reveal that Clinton’s emails are going to be released soon.
A tweet in the early morning hours from Kim Dotcom made what appeared to be a joking reference to the program Clinton used to delete the emails.
“Bleachbit(ch) can’t bleach it,” he wrote.
Hours later, he posted another tweet directly to WikiLeaks, telling the document-sharing group that they had “mail.”
Oh no! @wikileaks pic.twitter.com/HcHRNl3pMq
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) October 26, 2016
Kim Dotcom and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could have a common interest in releasing Hillary Clinton’s missing emails. For the past four years, Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden to face a rape investigation. Sources close to Assange have said he is fearful that if he leaves he would risk being picked up by the United States to face espionage charges.
Kim Dotcom is also trying to avoid extradition to the United States. A court in New Zealand decided last December that Dotcom and his former Megaupload colleagues could be extradited to the United States to face criminal charges, but Kim Dotcom has appealed.
Kim Dotcom has argued that he should be protected from the copyright infringement charges he and others connected to the site would face, Torrent Freak reported. His lawyer has argued that Kim’s arrest has no precedent.
“Today marks 1730 days since 20 January 2012, when the New Zealand police effectively dropped from the sky and conducted the search of Mr. Dotcom’s home. And at that point they then sought about arresting him. The officers were disguised, armed and left him and his family effectively bereft of assets and income,” said his lawyer, Ron Mansfield.
The revelation that Kim Dotcom and WikiLeaks could be joining forces to release Hillary Clinton’s missing emails comes just one day after a report that those emails may not be missing at all. While reports have indicated that Clinton deleted those emails beyond recovery, a new note released by the FBI suggests that there are still recoverable copies of them around.
WikiLeaks reveals fears and frustrations inside Clinton worldhttps://t.co/Eb7zrX7UkS
— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) October 26, 2016
New emails show Obama ("POTUS") lied when he stated that he didn't know Clinton was using a private email address https://t.co/sSH5Z2ASLD pic.twitter.com/YfZda8ouJ2
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 25, 2016
As the New York Post noted, an FBI interview with a Denver contractor that maintained Clinton’s server revealed that those 33,000 emails likely still exist.
“Unless one of Clinton’s aides had the capability to log in to the [company’s] server as an administrator and remove a mailbox, her archived mailboxes more than likely still reside somewhere in that system. And they may also materialize on an internal “shared drive” that PRN created to control access to the Clinton email accounts among PRN employees. PRN has been under FBI order to preserve all emails and other evidence since the start of its investigation last year.”
The revelation led to accusations that the FBI gave preferential treatment to Hillary Clinton in the email investigation. Michael M. Biasello, a veteran FBI special agent, told the New York Post that investigators should have searched Clinton’s home and other locations, which would have likely turned up the missing emails.
“Never — I repeat, never — in my career have I or any FBI agent known to me investigated a criminal case without the use of a federal grand jury, grand jury subpoenas or search warrants,” he said. “It’s disgraceful they weren’t used in this case.”
If Kim Dotcom and WikiLeaks are able to release Hillary Clinton’s missing 33,000 emails, it is not clear if it would have much of an impact on her campaign. Clinton has been able to expand her lead against Donald Trump in recent weeks, even as WikiLeaks has released a steady stream of emails from her campaign director, John Podesta.
[Featured Image by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]