Trump in 2010 wanted ‘death penalty’ for WikiLeaks

President-elect Donald Trump in 2010 blasted WikiLeaks, calling the organization “disgraceful.”

“I think there should be, like, death penalty or something,” Trump said during an on-camera exchange to preview Brian Kilmeade’s radio show, CNN’s KFile reported.

The Fox News anchor had brought up the subject of WikiLeaks after the website published hundreds of thousands of classified documents and videos leaked by Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. Army soldier.

{mosads}Trump’s comments stand in contrast to a tweet the president-elect sent early Wednesday that appeared to side with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over the intelligence community regarding Russia’s alleged meddling in the U.S. presidential election.

“Julian Assange said ‘a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta’ – why was DNC so careless? Also said Russians did not give him the info!” Trump tweeted, referencing WikiLeaks’s publication of private documents from Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, and the Democratic National Committee.

The president-elect in subsequent tweets questioned why the DNC did not have “hacking defenses.”

Assange said in a Fox News interview broadcast Tuesday evening that the Obama administration was focusing on Russia’s alleged role in the Democratic hacks to “delegitimize” the election of Trump.

He also said the Russian government was not the source of the Democratic documents released over the summer, adding that the group’s source is “not a state party.”

Trump has raised doubts about the intelligence community’s assessment regarding the Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential race. He has dismissed a report that said Russia intervened to help get Trump elected to the White House.