Taibbi is using a well worn FSB approach.

Having control of the documents allows the holder to make news at will and equally important, to provide the framing.

The 'DNC files' didn't really say anything bad about the DNC. The earliest of the emails was sent after Sanders had lost the nomination race on every possible metric, HRC was ahead on votes cast, delegates and superdelegates. But instead of retiring gracefully, Sanders was lying to his supporters telling them there was still a chance.

What made the DNC files so useful to Putin/Trump was the framing provided by WikiLeaks, that is where the stories of the files proving a despicable plot arose.

Assange was clearly a Russian operative all along. Like every other Russian agent/operative, he has a rapey past. He started WikiLeaks soon after leaving Russia after living there for several years.

The original brief of WikiLeaks was likely to enable the framing of future leaks like the ClimateGate affair which started this whole approach. It isn't certain that FSB were behind that particular incident but they sure made similar events happen.

@dangillmor @mmasnick