US President Donald Trump offered to pardon WikiLeaks frontman Julian Assange if he said that Russia had nothing to do with WikiLeaks’ publication of US Democratic Party e-mails in 2016, a London court heard on Wednesday.
Assange appeared by video link from prison as lawyers discussed the management of his hearing next week to decide whether he should be extradited to the US.
At Westminster Magistrates’ Court, Assange’s barrister, Edward Fitzgerald, referred to a witness statement by former US representative Dana Rohrabacher, who visited Assange in 2017, saying that he had been sent by the president to offer a pardon.
Photo: AFP
The pardon would come on the condition that Assange would say that the Russians were not involved in the e-mail leak that damaged Hillary Rodham Clinton’s US presidential campaign against Trump in 2016, Rohrabacher’s statement said.
White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham denied the assertion.
“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. It is a complete fabrication and a total lie,” she said.
Rohrabacher also said that he had never spoken with the president about Assange.
In a statement, he denied that he had been sent on Trump’s behalf, saying that he was acting on his own when he offered to ask Trump for a pardon if Assange would say how he got the e-mails.
He said he relayed Assange’s willingness to cooperate to Trump’s then-White House chief of staff John Kelly, but said that he heard nothing further from the White House.
US intelligence agencies concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 US presidential election to try to help Trump win, in part by hacking and releasing e-mails embarrassing to Clinton.
Russia denied meddling and Trump denied any campaign collusion with Moscow.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Assange spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth.
The full extradition hearing is to be split in two parts, with the second half delayed until May.
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