Did Donald Trump dangle a pardon in front of Julian Assange in exchange for the WikiLeaks founder to coverup Russian Government hacks into DNC emails?
Those are the allegations put forth by Assange’s legal team at Westminster magistrates court ahead of next week’s trial as the U.S. Government tries to extradite Assange to the United States to face 18 charges — including conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. This is in connection to the leak of Defense Department and State Department documents to WikiLeaks by Chelsea Manning.
This all stems from a visit with Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London by then-Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) back in August of 2017. During that visit, Rohrabacher told The Wall Street Journal that he was looking to work out a deal between Assange and the Trump Administration for the WikiLeaks founder to leave the Embassy and be granted a pardon or similar clemency. In exchange, the White House was seeking proof that the Russian government had not been the source of Democratic Party emails published by WikiLeaks.
However, Assange’s legal team is telling a different story.
Today, Assange lawyer Edward Fitzgerald submitted a statement from another member of the legal team Jennifer Robinson which indicates that it wasn’t exactly legitimate proof that the Trump Administration was seeking but rather a cover for Russia.
“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 leaks.”
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser, who is presiding over the hearing at Westminster Magistrate’s Court, ruled the statements by Robinson as admissible evidence.
In any sense, it’s unclear if Rohrabacher had clearance or the authority to negotiate on behalf of the White House. However, according to ArsTechnica, Rohrabacher placed a phone call to then White House Chief of Staff John Kelly in an effort to try and convince him that it may be better suited for the situation that someone directly associated with the White House meets with Assange.
Whether Rohrabacher actually had authority to make such an offer on the Trump administration’s behalf is not clear. In a September 2017 call with then-White House Chief of Staff Gen. John Kelly, Rohrabacher tried to convince Kelly that someone directly representing Trump should meet with Assange. “I would be happy to go with somebody you trust whether it is somebody at the FBI; somebody on your staff,” Rohrabacher told Kelly, according to the Wall Street Journal report.
If anything, it would seem that Rohrabacher’s attendance would work as a cover for the White Hosue in the event all of this came out as to say that the former Representative was acting on their own accord. On that note too, an unidentified White House official told the Wall Street Journal that Kelly suggested Rohrabacher take his proposal to the US intelligence community. However, the idea was never presented to President Trump.
