President Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE's repeated embrace of WikiLeaks and its distribution of Clinton campaign emails was "beyond problematic," former special counsel Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerCNN's Toobin warns McCabe is in 'perilous condition' with emboldened Trump CNN anchor rips Trump over Stone while evoking Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting The Hill's 12:30 Report: New Hampshire fallout MORE testified Wednesday.

Rep. Mike Quigley Michael (Mike) Bruce QuigleyDemocrats introduce legislation to revise FDA requirements for LGBT blood donors Tucker Carlson sparks condemnation with comments about deadly Kenosha shooting Hillicon Valley: Three arrested in Twitter hack | Trump pushes to break up TikTok | House approves 0M for election security MORE (D-Ill.) read Mueller several quotes from Trump in October 2016 after WikiLeaks released scores of hacked emails from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign in which the president spoke approvingly of the organization.

"Problematic is an understatement in terms of what it displays in terms of giving some, I don't know, hope or some boost to what is and should be illegal activity," Mueller said when asked for his reaction.

Mueller says that Trump's praise and encouragement of WikiLeaks is more than problematic, characterizing it as providing "hope or some boost" of illegal activity. pic.twitter.com/x9zlzwOEWh — Zack Ford (@ZackFord) July 24, 2019

Trump mentioned WikiLeaks regularly during campaign rallies in October 2016 as damaging emails about his opponent trickled out.

"I love WikiLeaks," Trump said in one instance.

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"Boy I love reading those WikiLeaks," he said in another.

Trump mentioned WikiLeaks 145 times in the final month of the campaign alone, according to NBC News.

In April of this year, however, Trump sought to distance himself from Wikileaks founder Julian Assange Julian Paul AssangePsychiatrist says Assange told him he was hearing imaginary voices, music Assange extradition hearing delayed over coronavirus concerns The Intercept's Glenn Greenwald discusses U.S. case against Assange MORE following his arrest.