A witness in Julian Assange’s extradition hearing will claim President Donald Trump offered the Wikileaks founder a pardon if he said Russia was not involved in leaking emails during the US election.
Assange’s barrister revealed the claim at Westminster Magistrates’ Court ahead of an extradition hearing next week.
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled the witness’s evidence admissible.
The White House said the claim is “a complete fabrication and a total lie”.
Assange is facing extradition to the US on 18 charges over leaked diplomatic cables.
He faces up to 175 years in prison if found guilty.
His barrister, Edward Fitzgerald QC, told the court there was evidence alleging that former US Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher made the pardon offer.
Mr Rohrabacher visited the Ecuadorian embassy in August 2017, where Assange was staying, he said.
Mr Fitzgerald said a statement from Assange’s lawyer Jennifer Robinson shows “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.”
Responding to the claims, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said: “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 is a complete fabrication and a total lie.”
A series of embarrassing emails leaked from the Democratic National Congress (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign were hacked before being published by WikiLeaks in 2016.
The US Department of Justice later charged 12 Russian intelligence officers with the hack.
The 18 charges faced by Assange include conspiring to commit computer intrusion, and relate to the publication of hundreds of thousands of classified documents leaked by former US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning a decade ago.
His extradition hearing is due to begin at Woolwich Crown Court on Monday, beginning with a week of legal argument.
It is then due to be adjourned before resuming on May 18 with three weeks of evidence.
Assange has been held on remand in Belmarsh prison since last September, after serving a 50-week jail sentence for breaching bail conditions.
He went into the Ecuadorian embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden on allegations of sexual offences, which he always denied and which were later dropped.
(c) BBC
It’s bullshit. Imagine the shitstorm if Trump would pardon this filthy rat for whatever denial. This is complete BS sponsored by Schumer and Mini Mike.
Be better if he extradited Rohrabacher to Russia. The US don’t need traitors like him, who would sell the US to Russia if he had chance.
Totally agree.
I think Trump isn’t afraid of a shitstorm. There is nothing he cannot get away with. Trump will say: I don’t know this guy (I predicted this after reading a few lines, and I was right).
Fox News will blame the Democrats for it, or ignore it, and the Republicans except for Mitt Romney will buy it. I think it is true, not because I believe the guy but because of the reaction of the White House. Also Trump did literally deny the Russian intervention in the elections, of course because he didn’t want people to have to the impression the elections were flawed.
I remember the days when rumors wouldn’t make it into news stories but the media foam at the mouth to see who can bring down the first non-politician US president. After all, the media succeeded in convincing some of the sheep that there really were pee tapes, LMAO! The guy ran Miss Universe for years but crickets from all those beautiful ladies…
Of course, it is not a Democrat so suddenly a high burden of proof is required.
Let’s ignore the fact that it is completely consistent with what Trump did at the beginning of his term, which was denying Russian interference and openly stating: “I believe Putin”, while ignoring the U.S. intelligence agencies.
Also, these Putler shills only have an incentive to deny Russian interference, so they probably have no motive to tell this if it weren’t true.
One way or the other, it’s not going to help Assange. If he does get extradited, Trump would be very foolish to pardon him, especially as a Russian sympathiser is involved.
Assange and Snowden both will get what they deserve. I remember that transsexual guy (Manning) who published intel about innocent civilians being killed in Afghanistan, he is a hero in some way, but Assange and Snowden are just idiots that were hired by the FSB.
Assange comes from a vile communist family. He is the Duranty of today. He has worked for the kremlin for many years, is a professional liar and a verminous sex pervert, also like Duranty. He even had his own show on RT.
Rohrabacher also works for the kremlin, as does another Republican; Rand Paul. Trump has enough filthy putlerite friends and employees to fill a restaurant.
Assange caused the death of many British and American intelligence assets in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. When informed of their murders, he remarked : ‘so what, they were traitors’. Doubly ironic, coming from one of the biggest traitors of modern times.
Assange, Snowden, Manning, Rohrabacher, Manafort, Flynn, Paul, Stone etc all belong in a super-max for life.
As for Trumpkov, obviously there is a lot more to come out.
For the sake of health i’m out of here. Remember the Crimea is Russia, Donbas is Ukraine, but the drama will continue because the West will back Ukraine’s claims on the Crimea. Great the US crushed Nordstream 2 BTW…
Sorry for your health issues Mike. But facts cannot be altered. Russia first invaded Crimea in 1783 and handed it to Ukraine in 1954. So no it is not Russia. An occupation lasting 172 years does not make it Russian. The matter is settled. The peninsula belongs to Ukraine in law. It is disputed only by Russia and its shills. Changing borders by brute force is no longer acceptable in civilization.
As I understand it, the Crimea has been pretty independent for centuries. They have fought alongside Ukrainians and they’ve also decided not to fight alongside Ukrainians. Referring mainly to the Tartars of course. They have also been back and forth with modern day Turkey and fought against the Moskali. Having said all that, it is up to Crimeans to decide and they have never sought occupation by the Turks, nazis, soviets and the only people I know of they’ve greeted openly has been the Ukrainians and Ukraine has been their home for centuries too. I think if Vladimir the Great got baptized somewhere besides the Crimea, maybe the ruSSo-filth would have left the Tartars alone. ;))
The Tatars have been there for 600 years, which effectively makes them the indigenous population of the peninsula. They were by far the majority until Lenin and Stalin began the deportations and race replacement in the 1920’s.
After independence from Russia, the Tatars started slowly drifting back and had some success with newly independent Ukraine in terms of replacing land and property that had been stolen from them by the occupier. This process has gone into reverse again. Luckily for the Tatars, the Ukrainians know very well how loyal they are to Ukraine and have enabled many of them to resettle in such places as Lviv.
The occupiers have been committing terrible atrocities on them since 2014, including torture by electricity.
The Sudak region has been a Tatar stronghold for many years until the occupiers started stealing their businesses and property. As with Abkhazia, when the putinazis see a nice property, they just take it and some fucking General and his family move in. They are such cunts you can’t believe it.
In the following article, the occupiers tortured a 17 year old boy. Fucking nazi scum. :-
http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1581991309