U.S. Admits that Congressman Offered Pardon to Assange If He Covered Up Russia Links
DeathMonkey writes:
U.S. Admits That Congressman Offered Pardon to Assange If He Covered Up Russia Links
Lawyers representing the United States at Julian Assange's extradition trial in Britain have accepted the claim that the WikiLeaks founder was offered a presidential pardon by a Congressman on the condition that he would help cover up Russia's involvement in hacking emails from the Democratic National Committee.
Jennifer Robinson, a lawyer, told the court that she had attended a meeting between Assange, then Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, and pro-Trump troll Charles Johnson at Assange's hide-out, the Ecuadorian embassy in London, on August 15, 2017.
Robinson said the two Americans claimed to be emissaries from Washington and "wanted us to believe they were acting on behalf of the president." The pair allegedly told Assange that they could help grant him a pardon in exchange for him revealing information about the source of the WikiLeaks information that proved it was not the Russians who hacked Democratic emails.
"They stated that President Trump was aware of and had approved of them coming to meet with Mr. Assange to discuss a proposal-and that they would have an audience with the president to discuss the matter on their return to Washington, D.C.," Robinson said.
After Robinson read her testimony in a London courtroom on Friday, lawyers representing the U.S. accepted the witness statement as accurate and confirmed they had no intention of cross-examining the claim. They did dispute, however, that President Donald Trump gave his blessing for the pardon offer.
Additional coverage at Reuters,The Guardian, The BBC, and others.
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