For the 10th anniversary of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange had promised an "October surprise" that some said would be "devastating" for the Hillary Clinton campaign. Trump supporters, like confidant Roger Stone, were thrilled about the big news. But there was just one problem for Stone and thousands of others who were getting their hopes up: There was no #OctoberSurprise.
Instead of releasing any documents, Assange, who spoke on video, promoted his newest book and said the leaks would be coming by the end of the year, Micreports. Assange said that WikiLeaks hopes "to be publishing every week for the next 10 weeks."
Assange will leak "significant material" about the U.S. election, mass surveillance, war, oil, Google, and more, according to CBS News. But there's no more details about what will be published and when.
Assange seemed to acknowledge the fact that he was trolling, noting how late the press conference was for Americans. "If we’re going to make a major publication in the U.S. at a particular hour, we won’t do it at 3 a.m.," Assange said, according to Mashable. To piss off his anti-Hillary Clinton fans even more, Assange said it's "false" that WikiLeaks "intend[s] to harm Hillary Clinton."
Infamous conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was livestreaming the event for his viewers. He was hyping up the event before realizing that Assange was "trolling the world" and that he got "Wikirolled." Jones wasn't too happy about that, adding, "Julian Assange is a Hillary butt-plug."
Annoyed by Assange's stunt, Twitter took to dragging him:
Trump supporters wasted their night getting amped up about the #OctoberSurprise only to be disappointed. But for those who find some Trump supporters deplorable, the letdown was pretty entertaining:
Julian Assange has done some good work in the past. Thanks to Chelsea Manning and other whistleblowers, WikiLeaks has exposed abuse at Guantanamo Bay, revealed a "Collateral Murder" video showing an American helicopter opening fire on civilians in Iraq, and leaked emails showing the DNC had it against Bernie Sanders.
With that said, WikiLeaks and Assange have done many questionable things, especially recently. They've promoted conspiracy theories. They've posted anti-Semitic tweets. They've revealed private information of teenaged rape victims and hundreds of other private citizens. Even other whistleblowers like Snowden have called out Assange and his organization for being reckless with sharing documents.
But Assange has been heavily against Hillary Clinton recently, which has won over some of his most vocal critics, like TV host Sean Hannity who now applauds Assange despite previously calling for his arrest.
Since 2012, Assange has been in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London avoiding extradition to Sweden where he's been accused of rape, according to USA Today. If he went to Sweden, Assange could possibly be extradited to the U.S., where he could face espionage charges.
If nothing else, it'll be interesting to see what happens next with WikiLeaks.
