Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a 2020 Democratic candidate for president, defended the work of WikiLeaks during an event in New Hampshire on Saturday, saying the stolen information the secrets-leaking organization has published has "spurred some necessary change."
The Hawaii Democrat appeared to touch on the bombshell email dumps by WikiLeaks in 2016 which rocked several high-profile Democrats in an establishment Gabbard herself was rebelling against.
"Obviously the information that has been put out has exposed a lot of things that have been happening that the American people were not aware of and have spurred some necessary change there," Gabbard said at a meet-and-greet in Concord.
She was responding to question about reporting that the Trump administration sought to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been living in Ecuador's London embassy since he was granted political asylum several years ago.
WikiLeaks seized on the comment, sharing it on Twitter.
Gabbard made headlines in February 2016 when she resigned as vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee after clashing with its then-leader Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., over a lightweight presidential debate schedule seen as advantageous to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. In stepping down, Gabbard endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.,who put up a surprisingly competitive fight for the Democratic nomination.
Later that summer, WikiLeaks published emails stolen from the DNC which showed top officials, including Wasserman Schultz, displayed an apparent favoritism towards Clinton over Sanders. Wasserman Schultz resigned as chairwoman amid the email scandal.
WikiLeaks went on to publish more emails stolen from the DNC and Clinton campaign manager John Podesta in the fall and has often been cited as being a contributing factor to Clinton's defeat to President Trump.
A U.S. intelligence community report released in January 2017 found with "high confidence" that WikiLeaks was used by Russian intelligence to release stolen information as part of an effort to get Trump elected. WikiLeaks has denied these findings.
In a speech in April 2017, then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who is now secretary of state, denounced WikiLeaks as a "non-state, hostile intelligence service, often abetted by state actors like Russia." He also said he was "confident" the Trump administration would "pursue them with great vigor."
In November, the Washington Post reported Justice Department prosecutors inadvertently revealed Assange had been charged under seal as part of a case connected to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The DNC has sued WikiLeaks, along with the Russian government and the Trump campaign, alleging a conspiracy between the three to disrupt the 2016 presidential campaign in order to get Trump elected. WikiLeaks sought to dismiss the lawsuit in December, arguing WikiLeaks' conduct was protected by the Fight Amendment.
In the years since the 2016 election, the DNC has taken steps to placate the unrest among some in the Left who ragged over the appearance of a rigged primary against Sanders. Last year, for instance, the DNC voted to strip some of the powers of superdelegates in the 2020 election.