U.S. President Donald Trump offered to pardon Julian Assange if the WikiLeaks founder provided the source for the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, a London court was told on Friday.
Assange’s lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, said she observed a meeting where former Republican U.S. Representative Dana Rohrabacher and Charles Johnson, an associate known to have close ties to the Trump campaign, made the offer.
“The proposal put forward by Congressman Rohrabacher was that Mr. Assange identify the source for the 2016 election publications in return for some form of pardon,” Robinson said in a witness statement given to the court.
Australian-born Assange, 49, is fighting to stop being sent to the United States, where he is charged with conspiring to hack government computers and violating an espionage law over the release of confidential cables by WikiLeaks in 2010-2011.
- Trump’s plan for Jan. 6 pardons faces pushback from lawmakers, police
- New York City’s new congestion toll kicks in. What drivers need to know
- Speculation grows that Austrian far-right leader Herbert Kickl will be asked to form a government
- New Orleans attack: FBI probes suspect’s visit to Ontario in 2023
Comments