A 2016 email sent to President Trump and top aides pointed the campaign to hacked documents from the Democratic National Committee that had already been made public by the group WikiLeaks a day earlier.

The email — sent the afternoon of Sept. 14, 2016 — noted that “Wikileaks has uploaded another (huge 678 mb) archive of files from the DNC” and included a link and a “decryption key,” according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post.

The writer, who said his name was Michael J. Erickson and described himself as the president of an aviation management company, sent the message to the then-Republican nominee as well as his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and other top advisers.

The day before, WikiLeaks had tweeted links to what the group said was 678.4 megabytes of DNC documents.

The full email — which was first described to CNN as being sent on Sept. 4, 10 days earlier — indicates that the writer may have simply been flagging information that was already widely available.

The message also noted that information from former secretary of state Colin Powell’s inbox was available “on DCLeaks.com.” That development, too, had been publicly reported earlier that day.

Alan S. Futerfas, an attorney for Trump Jr., described it as one of “a ton of unsolicited emails like this on a variety of topics.”

Futerfas said Erickson was unknown to Trump Jr. or the campaign. The message was one of thousands turned over to the House Intelligence Committee and others investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, emails that included spam and junk emails. Trump Jr. was asked about the email Wednesday, when he spent about seven hours behind closed doors answering questions from members of the committee.

“The email was never read or responded to — and the House Intelligence Committee knows this,” he said. “It is profoundly disappointing that members of the House Intelligence Committee would deliberately leak a document, with the misleading suggestion that the information was not public, when they know that there is not a scintilla of evidence that Mr. Trump Jr. read or responded to the email.”

Futerfas said that he and Trump Jr. had been required to surrender their electronic devices during the interview for security reasons. He expressed anger that details of the session leaked out before it had even concluded.

“We are concerned that these actions, combined with the deliberate and misleading leak of a meaningless email, undermines the credibility of the serious work the House Intelligence Committee is supposedly undertaking,” he said.

House Intelligence Committee officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The email came from a Yahoo email address. It is unclear if the sender’s name is actually Michael Erickson. The author could not immediately be reached for comment.

In addition to Trump Jr., it was sent to a rarely used address for Donald Trump, as well as Trump Organization attorney Michael Cohen and a Gmail account that had been sometimes used by Hope Hicks. It also went to several other Trump Organization employees, with the subject line “Trump: Another Wikileaks DNC Upload.”

Karoun Demirjian, Ellen Nakashima and Alice Crites contributed to this report.

ISTANBUL — Officials, religious leaders and activists across the Middle East on Thursday condemned President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, with U.S. allies and foes alike denouncing the move as reckless and likely to ignite further violence in the region.

Criticism of the move, which breaks with decades of U.S. policy, poured in from countries including Morocco, Egypt, Pakistan and Iran. Lebanon’s Hezbollah called it “malicious aggression,” and Turkey’s president said it would plunge the region into a “ring of fire.”

Even stalwart allies such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — otherwise admirers of Trump’s presidency — took aim at the administration over the new policy. The Saudi government on Thursday described the decision as an “irresponsible and unwarranted step,” according to the state-run news agency. Qatar, too, warned of “serious repercussions” for stability in the region.

Jerusalem, although divided, is considered holy by Jews, Christians and Muslims, and Palestinians envision the eastern part of the city as the capital of any future state.

Israelis, on the other hand, see Jerusalem as their own eternal, undivided capital. Previous U.S. administrations kept the embassy in Tel Aviv, pending a final peace agreement that would determine Jerusalem’s status.

Demonstrators hold Turkish and Palestinian flags as they shout slogans during a protest against the U.S. intention to move its embassy to Jerusalem and to recognize the city as the capital of Israel, near the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, Dec. 7. (Umit Bektas/Reuters)

[‘This will be bad’: Clashes break out in West Bank after Trump speech]

“The U.S. administration must reverse this unjust decision,” Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Thursday.

Abadi, who has partnered closely with the United States in the fight against the Islamic State, said the move could lead to “dangerous escalation” in the region. Iraq’s Foreign Ministry said it has summoned U.S. Ambassador Douglas Silliman to deliver a formal letter of protest.

In Turkey, where relations with Washington were already strained over U.S. support for Kurdish militias in Syria, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim likened Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem to pulling “the pin on a bomb ready to blow in the region.”

Speaking at a conference in the capital, Ankara, Yildirim said that Turkey, a NATO member, would not recognize the decision, Reuters news agency reported.

The U.S. Embassy in Ankara urged U.S. citizens to stay away from planned protests outside the embassy and consulates in Istanbul and Adana.

Outside the U.S. Embassy in the Jordanian capital, Amman, protesters denounced the United States, chanting against the decision and holding signs that read: “No to U.S. arrogance.”

“Before, the U.S. was a partner in peace to solve the problem in Palestine. Now, Jordanians see the U.S. as part of the problem,” said 60-year-old Hafeth Khawaja.

“All of the moderates in this region that stood by America, and put their faith in America for so many years, now look like fools,” he said. “We have been betrayed.”

Elsewhere, militants who have fought U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq took the opportunity to condemn both Israel and the United States.

Akram al-Kaabi, head of the Iran-backed Nujaba militia in Iraq, called Trump’s decision “foolish” and said it would spark an uprising. He added thatthe move legitimizes attacks on U.S. forces, of which there are thousands in Iraq.

Moqtada al-Sadr, an Iraqi Shiite cleric who has long opposed the United States, echoed that thought, saying governments should expel Israeli diplomats and temporarily shutter American embassies.

In Afghanistan, a Taliban spokesman said in an emailed statement that the decision will “fan the flames of conflict in the entire world.”

Trump, the spokesman said, has exposed U.S. support for a “policy of occupation and colonization of Muslim lands.”

El-Ghobashy reported from Baghdad. Mustafa Salim in Baghdad, Sayed Salahuddin in Kabul and Taylor Luck in Amman contributed to this report.

Read more:

‘It’s catastrophic’: U.S. allies condemn Trump Jerusalem decision

For Trump, Jerusalem is part of a global cultural war

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news

In a stunning close to his congressional career, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) on Thursday announced he will resign amid multiple allegations that he inappropriately touched women.

Franken, while denying the allegations, said he will leave the Senate in the coming weeks. His announcement came one day after the emergence of another accusation of misconduct led a majority of Senate Democrats to call for Franken’s resignation.

Striking a defiant tone in a speech on the Senate floor, Franken defended his political legacy and made clear he was not admitting to the behavior described by his accusers.

“Some of the allegations against me simply are not true, others I remember very differently,” he said.

Franken also took at aim at President Trump and Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, who Democrats charge have been accused of more serious allegations of sexual misconduct.

“I of all people am aware that there is some irony in the fact that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the Senate with the full support of his party,” Franken said.

But despite his misgivings, Franken said the controversy had become too much of a distraction and would prevent him from fully fulfilling his duties as a senator if he stayed in office.

“But this decision is not about me. It’s about the people of Minnesota,” he said. “It’s become clear that I can’t both pursue the Ethics Committee process and at the same time, remain an effective senator for them.”

He added: “I may be resigning my seat, but I am not giving up my voice.”

The announcement comes amid a reckoning on Capitol Hill over allegations of sexual harassment against male lawmakers.

“Enough is enough,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said at a news conference on Wednesday. “We need to draw a line in the sand and say none of it is okay, none of it is acceptable. We as elected leaders should absolutely be held to a higher standard, not a lower standard, and we should fundamentally be valuing women. That is where this debate has to go.”

When Franken steps down, a replacement will be appointed by Minnesota’s Democratic governor to serve until the 2018 election.

He is expected to make his resignation effective at the end of the month, according to a person familiar with his decision, to give time for the governor and his successor to prepare. That time frame would also allow Franken to stick around for potentially consequential votes on the Republican tax bill, funding the government and potentially the fate of “dreamers,” illegal immigrants brought to the country as children.

The drive to purge Franken, coming a day after Rep. John Con­yers Jr. (D-Mich.) resigned under pressure in the House, was a dramatic indication of the political toxicity that has grown around the issue of sexual harassment in recent months.

It also stood as a stark — and deliberate — contrast with how the Republicans are handling a parallel situation in Alabama, where Moore, who will face voters in next week’s special election, is accused by women of pursuing them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s.

Although most of the alleged actions took place before he was a senator, Franken was becoming a growing liability to his party, and Republicans had seized upon the allegations against him.

At Moore’s Tuesday night rally, conservative pundit Gina Loudon declared that Republicans did not need lectures on morality from Democrats who had struggled with their own sex scandals, and cited both Conyers and Franken.

Trump, himself the target of multiple allegations of sexual assault, has enthusiastically endorsed Moore, and the Republican Party is once again pouring money into the race after initially pulling back. Leading Senate Republicans have also toned down their negative comments about Moore, saying his fate should be up to the voters of Alabama and — if he is elected — the Senate Ethics Committee.

Democrats said they agreed with Franken’s decision and called on Republicans to reject members of their party facing similar accusations.

“Now, Republicans must join Democrats in holding their own accountable,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said. “The American people should take notice of national Republicans’ support for a morally degraded Senate candidate in Alabama and a President in the Oval Office facing equally credible charges.”

The move by Senate Democrats to oust Franken marked a dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of the onetime “Saturday Night Live” star. The senator from Minnesota had emerged as one of the Trump administration’s sharpest foils on Capitol Hill — and as a potential 2020 presidential contender.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) stood in front of journalists outside his Capitol Hill office on Nov. 27 to comment on the sexual harassment allegations against him. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

The latest allegation against Franken came in a report published Wednesday by Politico. A former congressional aide whose name was withheld by the publication claimed that Franken had tried to forcibly kiss her after a taping of his radio show in 2006, two years before his election to the Senate.

The woman claimed that Franken had told her, “It’s my right as an entertainer.”

Franken denied this allegation and said during his floor speech that while he did not believe other accusations or remember the encounters in the same way, he wanted to be sensitive to the growing national discussion over sexual harassment.

“I was shocked. I was upset,” he said of the allegations against him in recent weeks. “But in responding to their claims, I wanted to be respectful of that broader conversation because all women deserve to be heard and their experience taken seriously.”

Franken’s alleged offenses were arguably less serious than those attributed to Moore, or to Conyers, the longest-serving member of Congress, who was accused of demanding sexual favors from the women who worked for him. Until late last week, it appeared that Franken’s fellow Democrats would allow his case to work its way through the Senate Ethics Committee, a process that would take months and perhaps years to reach a resolution.

As recently as Nov. 26, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the Senate’s second-ranking Democrat, argued on CNN: “Al Franken has acknowledged what he did was wrong, and it was wrong. He has also submitted his whole case to the Senate Ethics Committee. I think that was the right thing to do. Let’s have a hearing, an investigation. Let’s let this really reach whatever conclusion it is going to reach, but through a due process.”

But on Wednesday, Durbin expressed no such forbearance. “Senator Franken’s conduct was wrong. He has admitted to it. And he should resign from the Senate.”

Even as Senate Democrats expressed support publicly for leaving Franken’s fate in the hands of the Ethics Committee, his female colleagues were increasingly unsettled as new accusers went public.

“People were at the edge of their patience with this. They’d had enough. One more allegation was going to be it,” said one senior aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations.

Another said female Democratic senators had been discussing it among themselves “on the Senate floor, even in the ladies’ room.”

“Many people have been talking about this for some time,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said. “It wasn’t coordinated. It just happened.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who has served in the Senate longer than most of her female colleagues, said it was “significant that the women on his side of the aisle led the way” and added that she believed the latest allegation was “in some ways the final straw for people.”

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), joined at left by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), meets reporters following a closed-door strategy session on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. (J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press)

Read more at PowerPost

A dozen Senate Democrats called Wednesday for Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) to resign amid mounting allegations of sexual harassment, raising the possibility he will become the second lawmaker to step aside over recent accusations of inappropriate behavior.

Franken’s office said he would make an announcement about his political future on Thursday. No other details were provided.

In a campaign started by Democratic women, nearly a dozen senators said Franken should leave Capitol Hill. Franken faces multiple accusations of inappropriate touching and unwanted advances. He has denied intentional wrongdoing and has apologized.

“Enough is enough,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) told reporters at a news conference. “We need to draw a line in the sand and say none of it is okay, none of it is acceptable. We as elected leaders should absolutely be held to a higher standard, not a lower standard, and we should fundamentally be valuing women. That is where this debate has to go.”

The other senators urging Franken to resign were Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Maggie Hassan (N.H.), Kamala D. Harris (Calif.), Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Patty Murray (Wash.), the highest-ranking woman among Senate Democrats, along with Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Robert P. Casey Jr. (Pa.) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio).

The calls came after another woman accused Franken of trying to forcibly kiss her after a taping of his radio show in 2006, before his election to the Senate.

The woman, a former Democratic congressional aide, said Franken pursued her as she left the station. When he tried to kiss her, he told her, “It’s my right as an entertainer,” she said.

Politico, which reported the allegation Wednesday, withheld the woman’s name. She was in her mid-20s at the time of the alleged incident.

If he resigns, Franken would be the second member of Congress to step aside during a recent reckoning over sexual harassment on Capitol Hill. Facing multiple accusations of inappropriate behavior around female aides, Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) stepped down on Tuesday after more than half a century in Congress.

[Rep. John Conyers Jr. resigns over sexual harassment allegations after a half-century in Congress]

Tom Perez, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, joined the calls for Franken’s ouster.

“Sen. Al Franken should step down. Everyone must share the responsibility of building a culture of trust and respect for women in every industry and workplace, and that includes our party,” he wrote on Twitter.

In recent days, the Democratic women senators had spoken privately among themselves about the situation, agreeing that they could not tolerate Franken’s presence as allegations continued trickling out.

“People were at the edge of their patience with this. They’d had enough. One more allegation was going to be it,” said one senior aide, who was granted anonymity to describe private deliberations.

A second Senate aide familiar with the talks confirmed the private discussions among female senators.

Describing the mood among Senate Democrats, the aide said, “It’s a s—-y day.”

If Franken resigns, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D) would pick his replacement, who would serve until a November 2018 special election to fill the final two years of Franken’s term.

Franken has said he will cooperate with an ongoing investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee. But Gillibrand argued the panel is not equipped to deliver “the kind of accountability the American people are searching for.”

“I think it would be better for the country for him to offer that clear message that he values women, that we value women and that this kind of behavior is not acceptable,” she said.

This story is developing . . .

David Weigel contributed to this article.

Read more at PowerPost