WikiLeaks threatens Daily Dot journalists over report on missing Syria emails

Crucial emails have gone missing from WikiLeaks’ Syria files, according to a report published today by The Daily Dot — and WikiLeaks isn’t happy about the discrepancy coming to light. The missing emails detail a 2011 transaction that moved $2.4 billion from the Central Bank of Syria to Russia’s VTB Bank, indicating both suspicious financial activity by the Assad regime and unusually close ties to the Russian banking sector.

The email is present in a cache of court-recorded emails taken from the Revolusec hacking group, who are believed to have provided the raw materials for WikiLeaks’ Syria Files, but it is absent from the Syria Files themselves. A number of emails sent on the same day are present in the files, leading to suspicion that WikiLeaks may have purposefully removed the message.

"You can be sure we will return the favor one day."

Reached for comment by The Daily Dot, a WikiLeaks spokesperson denied removing the email and made an apparent threat against the Dot reporters, saying that if they pursued the story, "you can be sure we will return the favor one day."

The Verge has reached out to WikiLeaks to clarify the spokesperson’s intent. We will update with any response.

WikiLeaks drew criticism earlier this year after publishing an archive of emails stolen from the DNC, a theft many attributed to the Russian government or a closely affiliated group. At the time, Assange defended WikiLeaks role as entirely neutral saying, "We took the data set, analyzed it, verified it, made it in a presentable, searchable form, presented it for all journalists and the public to mine."