Hillary Clinton-fronted DoS ‘planted’ own queries in CBS interview with Assange

The State Department under Hillary Clinton “planted” its concerns in an interview conducted by CBS’s 60 Minutes with Julian Assange, according to an e-mail sent by her assistant secretary of state for public affairs.

A new batch of Hillary Clinton’s e-mails released on Wednesday contains a letter from Philip J. Crowley, dated January 28, 2011.

The letter reads:

“Madame Secretary, a very quick update. I just received confirmation from 60 Minutes that a piece on Julian Assange will air Sunday night. He will be the only person featured. We had made a number of suggestions for outside experts and former diplomats to interview to "balance" the piece. 60 Minutes assures me that they raised a number of questions and concerns we planted with them during the course of the interview. We will be prepared to respond to the narrative Assange presents during the program.”

The interview was conducted by CBS’s long time correspondent Steve Kroft, who visited Assange when he was under house arrest fighting extradition to Sweden over sex assault allegations.

Whistleblower Edward Snowden wrote on his new Twitter account: “If true, sad to see.”