2015 interview by Der Spiegel with old Rapey McFuckElections
SPIEGEL: Do you see a potential blackmail situation?
Assange: They wouldn’t leak transcripts of tapped phone calls as that would draw focus to the spying itself. The way intelligence services launder intercepts is to extract the facts expressed during conversations; for example to say to their contacts in the media, “I think you should look into this connection between this politician and that person, what they did on that particular day.”