"The
media collusion that hid what many on the Left have been supporting is
shocking. This important information that finally opened people's eyes
to democrat candidates and operatives would not have been exposed were
it not for Julian Assange."
Assange has surged in popularity among Republicans since WikiLeaks
published a trove of hacked emails from the Democratic National
Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, hurting Clinton's campaign.
In 2008, WikiLeaks published some hacked emails from Palin's account.
"I
apologize for condemning Assange when he published my infamous (and
proven noncontroversial, relatively boring) emails years ago," Palin
wrote in her Facebook post.
"As I said at the time of being
targeted and my subsequent condemnation, though, the line must be drawn
before our troops or innocent lives deserving protection would be put
at risk as a result of published emails."
At the end of
her post, Palin encouraged people to watch the movie "Snowden," which
celebrates former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden's
leak of classified information about government surveillance programs.
Her comments are a sharp reversal from previous remarks Palin has made about Assange.
In
2010, Palin blasted Assange and questioned what steps the Obama
administration had taken to prevent him from "distributing this highly
sensitive classified material."
“He is an anti-American
operative with blood on his hands. His past posting of classified
documents revealed the identity of more than 100 Afghan sources to the
Taliban," she said of Assange in 2010.
"Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders?”
Palin's comments come after Assange said
in a Tuesday interview that there was an "obvious" reason the Obama
administration has focused on Russia's alleged role in Democratic hacks
leading up to Donald Trump's presidential election.
“They’re trying to delegitimize the Trump administration as it goes into the White House,” Assange told Fox News's Sean Hannity.
“They are trying to say that President-elect Trump is not a legitimate president."
During the interview, he also said it was a "stupid maneuver" for Democrats to continue to hound Trump for Russian hacking of various Democratic agencies.
Source: The Hill