Anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks released a set of documents allegedly showing CIA espionage on candidates in France’s 2012 presidential elections.
The seven pages of documents appear to be classified orders for intelligence operatives to gather information regarding candidates’ political strategies and internal communications. WikiLeaks’ release of the documents comes amid growing tensions between Trump and the intelligence community over leaks of classified information that have portrayed people close to Trump in a negative light.
“All major French political parties were targeted for infiltration by the CIA’s human (“HUMINT”) and electronic (“SIGINT”) spies in the seven months leading up to France’s 2012 presidential election,” a press release from WikiLeaks states.
“The revelations are contained within three CIA tasking orders published today by WikiLeaks as context for its forth coming CIA Vault 7 series. Named specifically as targets are the French Socialist Party (PS), the National Front (FN) and Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) together with current President Francois Hollande, then President Nicolas Sarkozy, current round one presidential front runner Marine Le Pen, and former presidential candidates Martine Aubry and Dominique Strauss-Khan.”
“Analysts in CIA’s Office of Russian and European Analysis (OREA) closely watched the Oct 9th and Oct 16th Socialist primaries and will be closely monitoring the April 22nd and May 6th 2012 Presidential elections. Of particular interest is President Sarkozy, the Socialist Party (PS), and other potential candidate’s plans and intentions for these elections,” one of the three CIA orders released by WikiLeaks states.
“Analysts assess that the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), the current ruling party, is not assured of winning the presidential election and, as a result, analysts are interested in the electoral strategy of the non-ruling parties listed below. Additional information on these topics will help analysts assess, and prepare key US policymakers for, the post-election French political landscape and the potential impact on US-France relations.”
Instructions for CIA operatives, according to the documents, included documenting French presidential candidates’ political strategies, views of the U.S. and sources of political funding.