Trump claims to 'know nothing about Wikileaks' despite praising it a dozen times during 2016 election campaign

Donald Trump has claimed he knows nothing about Julian Assange or Wikileaks, despite praising the whistleblower organisation at least a dozen times during the 2016 election campaign.

Speaking to reporters on the day Mr Assange was arrested in London and charged on behalf of of US authorities over the leaking of classified material, the president was asked if he still loved the organisation he often voiced affection for.

“I know nothing about Wikileaks. It’s not my thing,” he said, claiming that he knew little about the detention of Mr Assange.

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The president’s comments were striking given the number of times he voiced admiration for Wikileaks in 2016, praising it for revealing embarrassing details about his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

Mr Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr was also in contact with the organisation for several months as it sought his help in promoting the dissemination of that information.

“This just came out,” Trump told an audience in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on October 16 2016. “WikiLeaks, I love WikiLeaks.”

Shape Created with Sketch. Key moments for Julian Assange Show all 9 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Key moments for Julian Assange 1/9 The situation today Assange was arrested after Metropolitan Police officers were invited into the Ecuadorian embassy on April 11 2019. How did it come to this? Ruptly TV 2/9 The break Assange shows the front page of the Guardian on July 26 2010, the day that they broke the story of the thousands of military files leaked by WikiLeaks AFP/Getty 3/9 Wanted A warrant for Assange's arrest was issued in August 2010 for counts of rape and molestation in Sweden AFP/Getty 4/9 Ruling The UK's Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that Assange should be extradited to Sweden to face trial Getty 5/9 Sanctuary Following the ruling, Assange was given asylum by the Ecuadorian governement over fears that his human rights would be violated if he were extradited, he has since remained in the embassy in London Getty 6/9 A friend in Pam Friend Pamela Anderson delivers lunch to Assange at the embassy in October 2016. She has since spoken against his arrest Getty 7/9 Arbitrarily detained A UN panel found in 2016 that Assange had been arbitrarily detained and that he had not been able to claim his full right to asylum. It urged Sweden to withdraw the charges against him Getty 8/9 The cat ultimatum Last year, the Ecuadorian embassy threatened to revoke Assange's internet access unless he stopped making political statements online and started taking better care of James, his pet cat. Assange accused Ecuador of violating his rights Reuters 9/9 Arrest Assange was arrested on April 11 2019. Ecuador revoked his asylum status and invited the Metropolitan Police in to the embassy to arrest him. Reuters 1/9 The situation today Assange was arrested after Metropolitan Police officers were invited into the Ecuadorian embassy on April 11 2019. How did it come to this? Ruptly TV 2/9 The break Assange shows the front page of the Guardian on July 26 2010, the day that they broke the story of the thousands of military files leaked by WikiLeaks AFP/Getty 3/9 Wanted A warrant for Assange's arrest was issued in August 2010 for counts of rape and molestation in Sweden AFP/Getty 4/9 Ruling The UK's Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that Assange should be extradited to Sweden to face trial Getty 5/9 Sanctuary Following the ruling, Assange was given asylum by the Ecuadorian governement over fears that his human rights would be violated if he were extradited, he has since remained in the embassy in London Getty 6/9 A friend in Pam Friend Pamela Anderson delivers lunch to Assange at the embassy in October 2016. She has since spoken against his arrest Getty 7/9 Arbitrarily detained A UN panel found in 2016 that Assange had been arbitrarily detained and that he had not been able to claim his full right to asylum. It urged Sweden to withdraw the charges against him Getty 8/9 The cat ultimatum Last year, the Ecuadorian embassy threatened to revoke Assange's internet access unless he stopped making political statements online and started taking better care of James, his pet cat. Assange accused Ecuador of violating his rights Reuters 9/9 Arrest Assange was arrested on April 11 2019. Ecuador revoked his asylum status and invited the Metropolitan Police in to the embassy to arrest him. Reuters

Later that month, in Warren, Michigan, he declared: “Another one came in today. This WikiLeaks is like a treasure trove.”

“This WikiLeaks stuff is unbelievable,” he said at another rally. “It tells you the inner heart, you gotta read it.”

Indeed, the Business-Standard has collated a dozen occasions when Mr Trump praised Mr Assange’s organisation, which had released private, information about Ms Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, that was allegedly provided to the group by Russian hackers.

Among the most embarrassing information was about an agreement among senior members of the DNC – that was supposed to be neutral during the democratic primary to support Ms Clinton over her rival, Bernie Sanders.

One member of the DNC suggested smearing Mr Sanders by leaking information to suggest he was “an atheist”.

“Nobody has apologised. But this does not come as a surprise to me or my supporters. There is no doubt that the DNC was on Secretary Clinton’s campaign from day one,” Mr Sanders, who would later urge his supporters to vote for Ms Clinton, said at the time. The incident forced the DNC’s chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, to resign.

For some time, Mr Assange was a favourite of right wing media such as Fox News. He even appeared on Sean Hannity’s show where he denied that the Russian state had provided Wikileaks with the hacked information

“Yes,“ Assange said. ”We can say — we have said repeatedly — over the last two months that our source is not the Russian government and it is not a state party.“

That was not the view of special counsel Robert Mueller, who last summer filed indictments against 12 Russian intelligence officers and three Russian entities for seeking to hack the election.

In the indictment, Wikileaks is referred to as “Organisation 1”. The indictment claims the group received material from a Russian hacker, or group of hackers who used the avatar Guccifer 2.0, and who obtained information from the DNC system, as well as the personal emails of Ms Clinton’s campaign chairman, Jon Podesta.

According to the indictment, WikiLeaks wrote to Guccifer 2.0 in July 2016 asking for “anything Hillary related” in the coming days.