Presented below are the expanded messages between WikiLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, obtained through one of the FBI’s expansive warrants and revealed by recently unsealed documents in the Roger Stone case. For context, a handful of messages from the Mueller Report and are included in the timeline. Unless otherwise stated, messages from WikiLeaks are to Guccifer 2.0, and vice versa.
Some highlights:
- DC Leaks sent a message to WikiLeaks on the same day it was announced that the DNC had been hacked by Russian actors, the day before the Guccifer 2.0 persona appeared.
- WikiLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 quickly establish secure communications using tools like PGP and Jabber, but continue to communicate over Twitter.
- In their first messages, Guccifer 2.0 asks WikiLeaks about the presumed Vault 7 insurance file. At the time, many thought the 80 gb insurance file related to the election – apparently including the Guccifer 2.0 persona.
- WikiLeaks told Guccifer 2.0 that they were celebrating Brexit.
- WikiLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 discussed Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation, and the original Guccifer
- WikiLeaks told Guccifer 2.0 that “We’re best with very large data sets. e.g. 200gb. these prove themselves since they’re too big to fake”.
- Guccifer 2.0 provided WikiLeaks with several Brexit-related documents, which WikiLeaks did not publish.
- WikiLeaks asked Guccifer 2.0 for “all the emails/docs” from the Clinton Foundation
- Guccifer 2.0 asked WikiLeaks if they received the “DNC emails” on July 6th, weeks before they were published.
- WikiLeaks told Guccifer 2.0 that the coup in Turkey and the
- Assange told Raffi Khatchadourian that he had originally planned to release the files on the 18th, which was the same day he confirmed receipt of them to Guccifer 2.0:
- “His original release date for the D.N.C. archive, he explained, was July 18th, the Monday before the Convention; his team missed the deadline by four days. “We were only ready Friday,” he said. “We had these hiccups that delayed us, and we were given a little more time—” He stopped, and then added, strangely, “to grow.” (Later, when I asked about the comment, he argued that my recording of his saying it was faulty.) It was unclear who had given him time, but whoever it was clearly had leverage over his decisions.”
- WikiLeaks and Guccifer 2.0 talked about one or more additional large transfers.
- Both Guccifer 2.0 and DC Leaks described having problems with WikiLeaks’ submission system.
The Transcript:
June 14, 2016
DC Leaks to WikiLeaks “You announced your organization was preparing to publish more Hillary’s emails. We are ready to support you. We have some sensitive information too, in particular, her financial documents. Let’s do it together. What do you think about publishing our info at the same moment? Thank you.”
June 22, 2016
WikiLeaks: “Do you have secure communications? Send any new material here for us to review and it will have a much higher impact than what you are doing. No other media will release the full material.”
Guccifer 2.0: “what can u suggest for a secure connection? Soft, keys, etc? I’m ready to cooperate with you, but I need to know what’s in your archive 80gb? Are there only HRC emails? Or some other docs? Are there any DNC docs? If it’s not secret when you are going to release it?”
WikiLeaks: “You can send us a message in a .txt file here” with a web link
Guccifer 2.0: “do you have GPG?”
June 24, 2016
Guccifer 2.0: “How can we chat? Do u have jabber or something like that?”
WikiLeaks: “Yes, we have everything. We’ ve been busy celebrating Brexit. You can also email an encrypted message to [email protected]. They key is here.”
June 27, 2016
Guccifer 2.0: “Hi, i’ve just sent you an email with a text message encrypted and an open key.”
WikiLeaks: “Thanks.”
Guccifer 2.0: “waiting for ur response. I send u some interesting piece”
June 29, 2016
[email protected] attempts to send WikiLeaks “a large encrypted file”, appears undelivered
July 4, 2016
Guccifer 2.0: “hi there, check up r email, waiting for [r]eply”
July 6, 2016
Guccifer 2.0: “have u received my parcel?”
WikiLeaks: “Not unless it was very recent. [we haven’t checked in 24h].”
Guccifer 2.0: “I sent it yesterday, an archive of about 1 gb. via [website link]. and check your email.”
WikiLeaks: “Wil check, thanks.”
Guccifer 2.0: “let me know the results.”
WikiLeaks: “Please don’t make anything you send to us public. It’ s a lot of work to go through it and the impact is severely reduced if we are not the first to publish.”
Guccifer 2.0: “agreed. How much time will it take?”
WikiLeaks: “likely sometime today.”
Guccifer 2.0: “will u announce a publication? and what about 3 docs [I] sent u earlier?”
WikiLeaks: “I don’t believe we received them. Nothing on ‘Brexit’ for example”
Guccifer 2.0: “wow. have you checked ur mail?”
WikiLeaks: “At least not as of4 days ago. . . . For security reasons mail cannot be checked for some hours.”
Guccifer 2.0: “fuck, [I] sent 4 docs on brexit on jun 29, an archive in gpg[.] ur submission form is too fucking slow, [I] spent the whole day uploading 1 gb”
WikiLeaks: “We can arrange servers l00x as fast. The speed restrictions are to anonymise the path. Just ask for custom fast upload point in an email.”
Guccifer 2.0: “will u be able to check ur email?”
WikiLeaks: “We’re best with very large data sets. e.g. 200gb. these prove themselves since they’re too big to fake”
Guccifer 2.0: “or shall I send brexit docs via submission once again?”
WikiLeaks: “to be safe, send via [web link].”
Guccifer 2.0: “can u confirm u received dnc emails?”
WikiLeaks: “for security reasons we can’t confirm what we’ve received here. e.g., in case your account has been taken over by us intelligence and is probing to see what we have”
Guccifer 2.0: “then send me an encrypted email.”
WikiLeaks to Guccifer 2.0: “we can do that. but the security people are in another time zone so it will need to wait some hours.”
WikiLeaks: “what do you think about the FBl’s failure to charge? To our mind the clinton foundation investigation has always been the more serious. we would be very interested in all the emails/docs from there. She set up quite a lot of front companies. e.g in sweden.”
Guccifer 2.0: “ok, i’ll be waiting for confirmation. as for investigation, they have everything settled, or else I don’t know how to explain that they found a hundred classified docs but fail to charge her.”
WikiLeaks: “She’s too powerful to charge at least without something stronger. as far as we know, the investigation into the clinton foundation remains open we hear the FBI are unhappy with Loretta Lynch over meeting Bill, because he’s a target in that investigation.”
Guccifer 2.0: “do you have any info about marcel lazar? There’ve been a lot of rumors of late.”
WikiLeaks: “the death? a fake story. His 2013 screen shots ofMax Blumenthal’s inbox prove that Hillary secretly deleted at least one email about Libya that was meant to be handed over to Congress. So we were very interested in his co operation with the FBI”
Guccifer 2.0: “some dirty games behind the scenes [I] believe[.] Can you send me an email now?”
WikiLeaks: “No; we have not been able to activate the people who handle it. Still trying.”
Guccifer 2.0: “what about tor submission? will u receive a doc now?”
WikiLeaks: “We will get everything sent on[weblink].” as long as you see\”upload succseful\”at the end. if you have anything hillary related we want it in the next tweo [sic] days prefable [sic] because the DNC is approaching and she will solidify bernie supporters behind her after.”
Guccifer 2.0: “ok . . . i see”
WikiLeaks: “[W]e think the public interest is greatest now and in early october.”
Guccifer 2.0: “do u think a lot ofpeople will attend bernie fans rally in philly? Will it affect the dnc anyhow?”
WikiLeaks: “bernie is trying to make his own faction leading up to the DNC. [S]o he can push for concessions (positions/policies) or, at the outside, if hillary has a stroke, is arrested etc, he can take over the nomination. [T]he question is this: can bemies supporters+staff keep their coherency until then (and after). [O]r will they
dis[s]olve into hillary’s camp? [P]resently many of them are looking to damage hilary [sic] inorder [sic] to increase their unity and bargaining power at the DNC. Doubt one rally is going to be that significant in the bigger scheme. [I]t seems many of them will vote for hillary just to prevent trump from winning”
Guccifer 2.0: “sent brexit docs successfully”
WikiLeaks: “:)))”
WikiLeaks: “we think trump has only a 25% chance of winning against hillary . . . so conflict between bernie and hillary is interesting.”
Guccifer 2.0: “so it is”
WikiLeaks: “also, it’s important to consider what type ofpresident hillary might be. If bernie and trump retain their groups past 2016 in significant number, then they are a restraining force on hillary.”
July 7, 2016
WikiLeaks “All good?”
Guccifer 2.0: “yeah, what about u? is smth wrong?”
WikiLeaks: “No. All good.”
Guccifer 2.0: “are working with the emails [I] sent u? [C]heck ur email. [I] sent u a check archive from another email box. fuck, mail undelivered. [D]o you have another way to receive large volumes of data? [B]esides for tor submission form?”
Guccifer 2.0: “sent it via ur submission. check it.”
July 13, 2016
Guccifer 2.0: “r u there?”
July 14, 2016
Guccifer 2.0 sends WikiLeaks an email with the subject “big archive”, the message “a new attempt” and the attachment “wk dnc link1.txt.gpg” with instructions on how to retrieve
Guccifer 2.0: “ping. Check ur email. sent u a link to a big archive and a pass.”
WikiLeaks: “great, thanks; can’t check until tomorrow though.”
July 17, 2016
Guccifer 2.0: “what bout now?”
July 18, 2016
WikiLeaks: “have the 1Gb or so archive”
Guccifer 2.0: “have u managed to extract the files?”
WikiLeaks: “yes. turkey coup has delayed us a couple of days. otherwise all ready”
Guccifer 2.0: “so when r u about to make a release?”
WikiLeaks: “this week. do you have any bigger datasets? did you get our fast transfer details?”
Guccifer 2.0: “i’ll check it. did u send it via email?”
WikiLeaks: “yes.”
Guccifer 2.0: “to [web link]. i got nothing”
WikiLeaks: “check your other mail? this was over a week ago.”
Guccifer 2.0: “oh, that one, yeah, i got it.”
WikiLeaks: “great. did it work?”
Guccifer 2.0: “i haven’t tried yet.”
WikiLeaks: “Oh. We arranged that server just for that purpose. Nothing bigger?”
Guccifer 2.0: “let’s move step by step, u have released nothing of what i sent u yet.”
WikiLeaks to Guccifer 2.0: “How about you transfer it all to us encrypted. then when you are happy, you give us the decrypt key. this way we can move much faster. also it is protective for you if we already have everything because then there is no point in trying to shut you up”
Guccifer 2.0: “ok, i’ll ponder it.”
September 15, 2016
DC Leaks to WikiLeaks “hi there! I’m from DC Leaks. How could we discuss some submission-related issues? Am trying to reach out to you via your secured chat but getting no response. I’ve got something that might interest you. You won’t be disappointed, I promise.”
Guccifer 2.0 messages DC Leaks that WikiLeaks was trying to contact them
September 19, 2016
Identified as likely “staged the stolen Podesta emails for transfer to WikiLeaks”
September 20, 2016
WikiLeaks and DC Leaks resume communications
Mid-December, 2016
Assange says of Guccifer 2.0’s public leaks, “Now, who is behind these, we don’t know. These look very much like they’re from the Russians. But in some ways, they look very amateur, and almost look too much like the Russians.”
Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that WikiLeaks sent the first message to DC Leaks, when DC Leaks sent the first message to WikiLeaks.
