Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president. (Getty)
WikiLeaks has released more than 20,000 emails, documents, and audio files that it says came from the internal communications of Democratic National Committee officials. Among them: An email in which top DNC officials appear to be planning to plant a fake Donald Trump Craiglist ad seeking “hot women.” (You can search the full trove of WikiLeaks documents here.)
#DNCLeaks: plot to smear @realDonaldTrump by planting fake ads for hot women in Craigslist t.co/pePOdxjWDE
WikiLeaks released and highlighted the Trump ad email chain on its Twitter page. The DNC has not yet said whether the documents are authentic, and they have not been independently verified. Other emails released thus far purport to show DNC officials conspiring against Bernie Sanders, including by considering telling voters that he is an atheist.
RELEASE: 19,252 emails from the US Democratic National Committee t.co/kpFxYDoNyX #Hillary2016 #FeelTheBern
According to WikiLeaks, the fake Trump ad was sent in an email attributed to Christina Freundlich on May 18, 2016 to Mark Paustenbach and Luis Miranda, with Cate Domino copied. It starts, “Bumping this for comms approval please.” Miranda is DNC communications director, according to his LinkedIn site. Freundlich is deputy communications director. Paustenbach is press secretary, according to his Twitter page. Domino’s LinkedIn page describes her as social media director.
Earlier that day, according to WikiLeaks, an email attributed to Freundlich said: “Mark and Luis – digital created a fake craigslist jobs post for women who want to apply to jobs one of Trump’s organizations. This will be a microsite and we still need to send it to Perkins. Since we will be pitching this, need your approval please.”
The email then contains the text of the fake Craigslist ad. It advertises for multiple positions in the New York City area, and says that it seeks, “staff members for multiple positions in a large, New York-based corporation known for its real estate investments, fake universities, steaks, and wine. The boss has very strict standards for female employees, ranging from the women who take lunch orders (must be hot) to the women who oversee multi-million dollar construction projects (must maintain hotness demonstrated at time of hiring).”
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange speaks from the Ecuadorian Embassy on December 20, 2012 in London, England.(Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
The ad then lists desired attributes for applicants, including not gaining weight, being open to public humiliation, and not being a working mother because the boss “finds pumping breast milk disgusting.” See the entire email chain here, as released by WikiLeaks. The fake posting warns potential applicants about the boss: “Like it or not, he may greet you with a kiss on the lips or grope you under the meeting table.” The title for the position? “Honey bunch.”
WikiLeaks is promising more damaging information is to come; the first batch of documents was being called “Hillary Leaks” and was first in a series:
The Washington Post says the WikiLeaks document dump comes after a “report last month by The Washington Post that Russian government hackers penetrated the computer network of the Democratic National Committee, gaining access to an entire database of opposition research.”