Julian Assange, the Australian founder of WikiLeaks accused of publishing stolen U.S. government secret documents and hacked emails that cost Hillary Clinton the U.S. presidency, has revealed President Donald Trump offered to pardon him if he said Russia wasn't involved in leaking Democratic Party emails.
The stunning quid pro quo claim was made at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London Wednesday before next week's trial where Assange will attempt to block efforts to extradite him to the United States. Assange was arrested at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London on April 11, 2019. He sought refuge in the embassy in 2012 to avoid arrest by Sweden, which he claimed would later extradite him to the U.S.
Assange is wanted in the U.S. on 18 charges over the publication of U.S. classified documents. He faces up to 175 years in jail if found guilty of the charges that include conspiring to commit computer intrusion. On the other hand, Assange was charged in London with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, or hacking into a government computer. This minor crime carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Assange is currently imprisoned at HM Prison Belmarsh in the United Kingdom for violating the Bail Act.
Assange's barrister or lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, revealed former U.S. Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher visited Assange while he was still in the Ecuadorean embassy in August 2017, according to the Guardian.
Fitzgerald made this astounding assertion in seeking the court's permission to admit a statement by Jennifer Robinson, a lawyer for WikiLeaks, who said she was present when Rohrabacher made the offer on Aug. 16, 2017.
"Mr Rohrabacher going to see Mr Assange and saying, on instructions from the president, he was offering a pardon or some other way out, if Mr Assange ... said Russia had nothing to do with the DNC (Democratic National Committee) leaks," said Robinson.
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser, who is hearing the case at Westminster, said the claim alleging Trump's offer to pardon Assange is admissible as evidence. The extradition hearing will begin at Woolwich crown court on Monday. The hearings will continue for the next three weeks starting May 18.
Rohrabacher is infamous in Washington D.C. as the most pro-Russia and pro-Vladimir Putin legislator. Until he lost his re-election bid in the 2018 midterm elections to a Democrat, Rohrabacher consistently defended Putin and Putin's Russia. He was on Trump's shortlist for Secretary of State along with Mitt Romney and Rex Tillerson, the eventual appointee.
Trump invited Rohrabacher to the White House in April 2017 after seeing the latter on Fox TV defending him. In September, the White House confirmed Rohrabacher had called then chief of staff, John Kelly, to talk about a deal with Assange.
Rohrabacher said Assange would have to hand over a computer drive or other data storage device that proves Russia wasn't the source of the hacked Clinton emails.
"He would get nothing, obviously, if what he gave us was not proof," said Rohrabacher to the right-wing Wall Street Journal.
