The Special Counsel investigation publicizing a Russian connection to Wikileaks' release of Hillary Clinton's damaging emails was far more recent than 2016 [0]. For myself, and I presume much of the general public, that would be the point in time where awareness of Assange's role in an alleged Russia-involved conspiracy manifest.
I said after 2016. Wikileaks is a media company that reports info/intel from their sources, no different from the NYT, CNN, fox etc. There were no questions coming from these sections of the general public and the media you allude to when it was bush and it's very convenient for the intelligence community to discredit where they can. Snowden addresses the case against Assange in his latest episode on Joe Rogan, a very interesting listen.
