In an effort to repeat their claimed success swaying public opinion ahead of the American Presidential election, Wikileaks is now releasing huge dossiers on politicians in France. The stated goal it to bring transparency to elections around the globe.
Since Sunday, Wikileaks has been engaged in a massive document dump, releasing thousands of pages of information on the French Presidential candidates: Former Prime Minister François Fillon, conservative Marine Le Pen, liberal Emmanuel Macron and Socialist Party candidate Benoit Hamon.
Tuesday, they dropped more than 3,000 pages on Fillon, seeking to bolster claims that Fillon illegally employed his wife as a “parliamentary aide.” Fillon says he has nothing but “disgust” for the allegations, and that his wife has publicly served his office since he was first elected in 1981.
Macron was revealed, in communications between members of the Hillary Clinton Presidential campaign, as a “banker in mergers & acquisitions,” in “sharp contrast,” Wikileaks claims, to the image he’s portrayed on the campaign trail. The liberal candidate was working on an alliance with Clinton and requested her presence at a private dinner, the site also claims.
Late Tuesday night, Wikileaks dropped a second dossier, this time on Marine Le Pen, with just over a thousand “official” documents. LePen is also struggling with claims that she employed family members—and her bodyguard—as parliamentary aides.
As with John Podesta’s emails, it is not immediately clear how Wikileaks acquired the French dossiers—nor whether they are verified by any authority. But it is clear that Wikileaks is intent on making a name for itself as a key voice in global elections.
France seems to be the first major target since the US (perhaps because Russian media is intensely interested in the ouctome of the French election). But Wikileaks seems to be ramping up campaigns in several other countries.
In addition to the French materials, the site’s Twitter account attacked the governments of Sweden and India, exposed information sharing between German intelligence and the NSA, and announced a reward for information on political parties in the UK—all since taking partial credit for Hillary Clinton’s electoral collapse.
