90 Miles From Tyranny

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Tuesday, November 27, 2018

We’ll bet $1 million and ‘editor’s head’: WikiLeaks drops MOAB on ‘bombshell’ report Manafort held secret meeting

The Guardian dropped a bombshell report claiming Paul Manafort met with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, “around the time he joined Trump’s campaign.”

The news that threatened to blow special counsel Robert Muller’s Russian collusion probe wide open had anti-Trump forces on both the left and right all a’twitter, but lo and behold, it may be all for naught.

From The Guardian:

Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort held secret talks with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, and visited around the time he joined Trump’s campaign, the Guardian has been told.
Sources have said Manafort went to see Assange in 2013, 2015 and in spring 2016 – during the period when he was made a key figure in Trump’s push for the White House. […]

A well-placed source has told the Guardian that Manafort went to see Assange around March 2016. Months later WikiLeaks released a stash of Democratic emails stolen by Russian intelligence officers.

The “bombshell” report had rabid Never Trumper Bill Kristol, founder of The Weekly Standard, rushing to conclusions in his zest to take down the president.

“What campaign chair hasn’t held secret talks with Julian Assange in the Ecuadoran embassy in London?” tweeted Kristol, who appears to have botched a hashtag when he included “NO COLLUSION,” without the required ‘#’ symbol.
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Kristol was joined by far-left loon George Takei, of Star Trek fame, and others who reveled in the seemingly bad news for Trump.

So let me get this straight:

Manafort joins Trump campaign March 2016

Manafort secretly visits Wikileaks Assange in Ecuador, spring 2016

Trump elevates Manafort to Campaign Manager June 2016

In June and July 2016, Wikileaks releases Democratic emails

But...no collusion?
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But for the aforementioned “but” — as it turns out, Assange responded to the story to adamantly deny that the alleged meeting ever took place.

Calling the reporter a “serial fabricator,” a tweet from the Wikileaks Twitter account laid down a SERIOUS wager on the accuracy of The Guardian report.

How serious? How about “a million dollars and its editor’s head.”

“Remember this day when the Guardian permitted a serial fabricator to totally destroy the paper’s reputation. [Wikileaks] is willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editor’s head that Manafort never met Assange.”
Remember this day when the Guardian permitted a serial fabricator to totally destroy the paper's reputation. @WikiLeaks is willing to bet the Guardian a million dollars and its editor's head that Manafort never met Assange. https://archive.fo/pUjrj 
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The account then added a little perspective to the alleged flub and a subtle change made by The Guardian to the headline of the story:.
Ninety minutes after publication the Guardian modifies its "Manafort held secret talks with Assange" headline to add ", sources say".
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Here’s a sampling of the reactions to the latest developments from Twitter: