After being accused of “seeking revenge” on and plotting to kill WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the allegations were untrustworthy.
“They assert that was me who was trying to kill Julian Assange,” Pompeo, addressing the claims for the first time publicly, said at a Hillsdale College event Tuesday evening. “You should know: Don’t believe Michael Isikoff, OK? Don’t believe everything you read in Yahoo News.”
https://twitter.com/jlippincott_/status/1442665486295183364
The report, co-written by Isikoff, the chief investigative correspondent at Yahoo News and a notable Russian hoaxer, detailed the Obama administration’s ploy to target Assange, one of America’s most famous whistleblowers who has publicized reams of classified information. Then-CIA Director Pompeo was reportedly enraged by WikiLeaks’ publication of “Vault 7” materials — highly classified CIA hacking tools.
Pompeo and others “were completely detached from reality because they were so embarrassed about Vault 7,” Yahoo claims an anonymous “former Trump national security official” said. “They were seeing blood.”
Although Pompeo neither confirmed nor denied the claims, the report alleged that senior-level Trump officials seriously considered extrajudicially kidnapping and assassinating Assange. It also claimed that intelligence officials lobbied the White House to label journalists “intelligence brokers” so they could be more easily spied on and legally persecuted.
The reporting also uncovers a CIA plot under Obama — during the height of the Snowden reporting — to classify myself, Laura Poitras and Assange as "information brokers" rather than journalists to justify surveillance of us and even imprisonment, rejected by the Obama DOJ. pic.twitter.com/QS876Elhqd
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) September 26, 2021
The Yahoo report alleges CIA plans included spying on WikiLeaks associates, fostering disagreements between group members, and stealing electronic devices.
“The report, based on conversations with more than 30 former officials, notes that the CIA’s plans for Assange reportedly led to strenuous debates regarding their legality,” the report read. “Some administration officials were so concerned that they felt the need to tell members of Congress about Pompeo’s suggestions.”
Isikoff is a key figure in the fabrication of the Russian collusion hoax that projected Hillary Clinton campaign activities onto the Trump campaign and administration, hamstringing President Trump’s entire presidential tenure. One of Isikoff’s Yahoo News reports was used by the FBI to form the basis for its secret application to spy on the Trump campaign and administration based on now-proven falsehoods spun into a so-called “dossier” by Christopher Steele.
