Attorneys for Julian Assange told a London court on Wednesday that they will provide evidence that the Trump administration offered to pardon the WikiLeaks founder if he was willing to say that Russia had nothing to do with leaks of Democratic Party emails, according to Bloomberg.
During the preliminary extradition hearing, Assange’s lawyers said that former GOP congressman Dana Rohrahbacher offered the deal in 2017, one year after WikiLeaks published emails which were damaging to then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. At the time, the FBI’s ‘Russiagate’ investigation was in full swing as the agency tried in vein to prove that Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 US election.
At a preliminary hearing Wednesday, Assange’s lawyer Edward Fitzgerald asked the court to allow more witness statements during the extradition hearing that will start next week. The new information includes a witness statement by Jen Robinson, another of Assange’s lawyers, that deals with the alleged offer made by then U.S. Representative. Dana Rohrabacher, he told the court.
Socialism’s growing appeal meets an awkward reality check on college campus
Illinois County, Connecticut Cite Weapons You Never Heard of to Justify Their Gun Bans to SCOTUS
United Methodist Church Sees Considerable Membership Drop in U.S.: Report
Mike Johnson’s future hangs in balance as the ‘accidental speaker’ marks 3 years
Here are the states with voter ID on the ballot this November
Alarming fraud trend puts small-town mosque with industry and foreign govt ties in focus: ‘Our motherland now’
Leavitt says Trump is defying midterm headwinds as he barnstorms country
Florida A&M University shooting leaves 12 injured, including 6 children, near football stadium
Op-Ed: Stalin Believed in Predestination – Just Not the Calvinist Kind
Obama makes the case for el Sayed and a Democratic Party that can disagree
Constitutional Attorney: If We’re Not Careful, the US Could End Up Like France
Ukraine’s Starlink restored as Elon Musk claims Kyiv violated terms of service ‘to kill people’
Breaking: ‘Explosion’ at Quaker Oats Factory Rocks Midwest City as Large Smoke Cloud Looms
Obama compares Trump’s White House renovations to ‘Saddam Hussein opening a Cheesecake Factory’ at Ohio rally
Trump’s go-to Michigan auto worker gets a job and the spotlight
The witness statement will address “Mr. Rohrabacher going to see Mr. Assange, and saying on instructions of the president, offering pardon or some other way out if Mr. Assange played ball and said the Russians had nothing to do with” the leaks, Fitzgerald said. -Bloomberg
Assange spent nearly seven years living in the Ecuadorian embassy in Central London in order to avoid extradition to Sweden, and later the United States.
The White House has denied the claim.
Developing…
Story cited here.
