Wikileaks threatens MSNBC that their lawyers will start watching their programs if they report on the ties between Russia, Donald Trump, and those leaked e-mails.

@JoyAnnReid You are pushing a discredited conspiracy theory. There is no affinity, whatsoever. Our lawyers will monitor your program.

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 24, 2016

Courtesy of Mediaiate:

WikiLeaks, the site that dumped the DNC email leak a few days ago, warned MSNBC’s Joy Reid yesterday after she teased a discussion on her show about the “affinity” between Donald Trump, Russia, and WikiLeak. 

The emails were reportedly breached by hackers connected to the Russian government, which has led to talk that maybe Russia is doing this to help Donald Trump, who has said things that Putin might find attractive in an American president. (There’s also the fact that the only part of the GOP platform his team amended was the anti-Putin part.)

This led to Rachel Maddow tweeting this in response:

"our lawyers will monitor your program"? seriously? and will you lurk in the alley, too? https://t.co/Jw09jrkP5K

— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) July 24, 2016

Personally I'm not sure how offering to increase MSNBC's viewership is supposed to intimidate them, as I am fairly sure that they want EVERYBODY to tune into their programs.

And to be fair to MSNBC they are certainly not the first ones to made the connection between Russia hacking the DNC and these leaked e-mails from Wikileaks.

Courtesy of CNN:

Hillary Clinton's campaign manager is alleging that Russian hackers are leaking Democratic National Committee emails critical of Bernie Sanders in an effort to help Donald Trump win the election in November. 

 It comes on the heels of "changes to the Republican platform to make it more pro-Russian," Robby Mook told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" Sunday. 

"I don't think it's coincidental that these emails were released on the eve of our convention here, and I think that's disturbing," he said. 

The DNC has previously had its files hacked by an individual named "Guccifer 2.0" that may have had ties to the Russians. 

Hackers stole opposition research on Donald Trump from the DNC's servers in mid-June. Two separate Russian intelligence-linked cyberattack groups were both in the DNC's networks.

Got to admit, that is a pretty interesting coincidence.

And at least one news agency has essentially referred to Trump as a Russian operative running for President:

The Republican nominee for president, Donald J. Trump, has chosen this week to unmask himself as a de facto agent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a KGB-trained dictator who seeks to rebuild the Soviet empire by undermining the free nations of Europe, marginalizing NATO, and ending America’s reign as the world’s sole superpower.

While another claims that Trump is in bed with Vladimir Putin politically and owes the Russians millions of dollars:

Over the last year there has been a recurrent refrain about the seeming bromance between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. More seriously, but relatedly, many believe Trump is an admirer and would-be emulator of Putin's increasingly autocratic and illiberal rule. But there's quite a bit more to the story. At a minimum, Trump appears to have a deep financial dependence on Russian money from persons close to Putin. And this is matched to a conspicuous solicitousness to Russian foreign policy interests where they come into conflict with US policies which go back decades through administrations of both parties. There is also something between a non-trivial and a substantial amount of evidence suggesting Putin-backed financial support for Trump or a non-tacit alliance between the two men.

You know what, I think I will join the lawyers for Wikileaks in watching Joy Reid's program.

Sounds like it might be very informative.