Access Hollywood and WikiLeaks

🔵 Foreign Interference & Disinformation · Oct 2016

Summary

Within an hour of the Washington Post’s October 7, 2016 release of the “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Donald Trump boasted about sexually assaulting women, WikiLeaks began releasing thousands of emails hacked by the Russian GRU from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, shifting media attention away from the tape. Trump associate Roger Stone had previously boasted of advance knowledge of the WikiLeaks release. Stone was later convicted of obstruction of a congressional investigation, witness tampering, and lying to Congress about his contacts with persons associated with WikiLeaks. Trump commuted Stone’s sentence in July 2020 before he reported to prison, and issued him a full pardon in December 2020.