Secret logs expose list of visitors to Julian Assange before leak of Democratic party emails
Julian Assange received more than 80 visitors in the seven weeks leading up to the release of hacked Democratic party emails by WikiLeaks, including two journalists from the Kremlin-backed broadcaster RT, the documentary film-maker Michael Moore, the philosopher Slavoj Zizek and a German hacker.
Visitor logs insured by the Guardian and Focus Ecuador show a frenetic period for the WikiLeaks founder in the summer of 2016, around the time he declared that he would release emails from Hillary Clinton's US presidential campaign. Assange has been holed up in Ecuador's London embassy since 2012.
Among his guests were senior staff members from RT, the Moscow TV network described by US intelligence agencies as the Kremlin's” principal international propaganda outlet “.
The visits by RT's London bureau chief, Nikolay Bogachikhin, who is Russian, and Afshin Rattansi, a British citizen, are likely to attract attention.
WikiLeaks' publishing of the emails, which painted an unfavourable image of Clinton, is a central focus of US federal researchers conducting a criminal inquiry into possible collusion between Donald Trump's campaign and the Kremlin.
Speculation has swirled as to how the hacked emails reached WikiLeaks and who was aware that WikiLeaks had the emails. It is unclear if WikiLeaks procured them physically or remotely, with delivery to Assange in person only one potential. The logs do not provide answers.
Assange's visitors also included well-known WikiLeaks supporters such as the designer Vivienne Westwood, the journalist John Pilger and the German hacker Andy Muller-Maguhn .
Muller-Maguhn told the Washington Post that he once delivered a thumb drive with personal messages to Assange in 2016. He said he was never in possession of the hacked Democratic emails and never transported them.
WikiLeaks published the first tranche of Democratic party emails on 22 July 2016. A declassified US intelligence assessment released in January 2017 procured the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had ordered an” influence campaign “ to undermine Clinton's candidacy and boost Trump.
The assessment singled out RT and referred to it as a “partner” of WikiLeaks.
RT told the Guardian that the broadcaster had been invited in June 2016 to participate in a WikiLeaks Brexit special, and that arrangements to participate in the show were made during the visits to the embassy. It said its journalists has no such prior knowledge that Assange was in possession of the Clinton emails and never discussed the issue with Assange.
The visitor logs were drawn up by an international firm brought in by Ecuador's then chairperson, Rafael Correa, to provide security for Assange. The secret program was called Operation Hotel.
Among the journalists, activists and artists who visited Assange in June and July 2016 were two Russian citizens, Bogachikhin and Yana Maximova, 28, a Russian emigre to the US who has worked as a volunteer journalist for a community radio station in Portland.
Assange has a longstanding relationship with RT.
