WikiLeaks blasts Trump’s decision to not release taxes, possibly ending a new alliance | McClatchy Washington Bureau

Trump’s decision, which was announced by one of his top aides, Kellyanne Conway, shut down a White House petition that had garnered 200,000 signatures since it was introduced Friday.

WikiLeaks’s statement, however, is perhaps most surprising given the unlikely and sometimes one-sided relationship that had developed between the organization and conservatives. Republicans had warmed to the organization and its leader, Julian Assange, as it leaked emails from Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta, throughout the presidential campaign.

In 2010, Republican Rep. Pete King called for WikiLeaks to be designated as a terrorist organization and said Assange had blood on his hands for leaking classified information. By 2016, key Trump surrogates expressed either ambivalence or support for Assange, with some apologizing for their previous attacks on the organization, per CBS News. Among registered Republicans, WikiLeaks’ approval rating shot from a net negative 47 percentage points in 2013 to positive 27 points after the election, per a YouGov poll.

Trump himself had previously said Assange’s leaks were “disgraceful” and merited “like death penalty or something,” per CNN. But as the intelligence community declared that Russia had attempted to hack the election with the intention of helping Trump, the Republican appeared to side with Assange’s assertion that none of the information he published had come from Russia.

Assange also accused Barack Obama’s administration of trying to delegitimize Trump’s presidency before he took office, per Newsweek. And although some elected Republicans continued to express distaste for Assange, Trump tweeted several other messages that seemed to indicate that he agreed with him, according to The Hill.