Because there are no depths to which Donald Trump or his administration will not sink (or have sunk) it comes as no surprise that the attorney for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange claims that Assange was offered a pardon at the behest of the president if he’d only just, you know, provide evidence that Russia didn’t hack and interfere with the US election in 2016.
SIGH.
Assange is currently facing an extradition hearing in London, on whether Assange will be extradited to the US where he faces 18 charges, 17 of which are for espionage, and cover his publication of classified materials in 2010 with the help of Chelsea Manning. He faces up to 175 years in US prison if extradited and convicted.
In a pre-trial hearing, however, his attorney Edward Fitzgerald told the magistrate that there had been an offer made by former Congressman Dana Rohrabacher that Assange would be pardoned if he would provide evidence, or claim that Russia was not behind the Wikileaks publication of DNC emails in 2016.
You remember that, right, the emails that may have tipped the election for Trump? The ones he asked Russie to get and hack on national television? Yeah those.
We know of course that Russia was behind this hack (and that there was collusion, shut up, Donnie) but this attempt by Trump, through a surrogate, to influence the investigation of that hack and possibly pardon a guy who … sorry, I can’t go on. This isn’t surprising at all. This is so completely predictable that I’m shocked it’s the first we’ve heard of it.
This meeting offer allegedly happened sometime in 2017, when Rohrabacher visited the Ecuadorian embassy where Assange was staying. Given that Trump has given out pardons to a veritable parade of the corrupt and horrible throughout his term – heck just in the last few days – the offer of a pardon to Assange seems in character.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, of course, vocally denies these charges. (Shocking!) “The President barely knows Dana Rohrabacher other than he’s an ex-congressman. He’s never spoken to him on this subject or almost any subject,” Grisham claims, adding. “It is is a complete fabrication and a total lie.”
You’ll remember, of course, the tape of Kevin McCarthy saying during a meeting or republicans in 2016: “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump…Swear to God.” Roharbacher, a supporter of Russia, lost his seat in Congress in 2018.
Where will this go? Will this evidence – which was allowed – matter when it comes to the extradition of Assange? Since he didn’t make the claims Trump wanted, he’d probably not on the Christmas card or pardon list, but Trump may still see an ally in his fellow accused rapist. Stranger things have happened.
(via The Daily Mail)
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