WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was ‘offered pardon’ by Donald Trump
Donald Trump reportedly offered Julian Assange a presidential pardon but the WikiLeaks founder was required to do something in return for the US President.
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US President Donald Trump offered WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange a US presidential pardon or “some way out” two years ago, according to evidence to be presented at his London extradition trial.
At the final administrative hearing in Westminster Magistrates Court on Wednesday, Assange’s barrister Edward Fitzgerald revealed that fellow defence solicitor Jennifer Robinson will outline the presidential pardon offer in a statement to the trial starting on Monday.
He said Ms Robinson’s statement will describe how Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher had visited the Australian in the Ecuadorian embassy to offer him a deal back in 2017.
Mr Fitzgerald alluded to the deal requiring Assange to deny Russian links to the hacking and leaking of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) emails before the 2016 elections.
“Mr Rohrabacher going to see Mr Assange and saying, on instructions from the president (Trump), he was offering a pardon or some other way out, if Mr Assange would say the Russians had nothing to do with the DNC leaks,” Mr Fitzgerald told the court.
While then-Congressman Rohrabacher’s meeting with Assange is already public knowledge, until now it has been reported he did so on his own rather than under the orders of President Trump.
Assange, dressed in a brown sweater and white shirt with black trousers, calmly read through documents during the revelation.
ASSANGE WORRIED ABOUT MUM, KIDS
It came as Assange said that he is worried about his mum and his children as he awaits an extradition trial on Monday.
The WikiLeaks founder received a visit from Australian politicians Andrew Wilkie and George Christensen at London’s Belmarsh high security prison early on Tuesday (AEDT).
They spent more than an hour discussing his case, which will start at Woolwich Crown Court in southeast London next week.
Assange, 48, was disoriented and under enormous pressure from the impending case, they said.
If he loses he will be sent to the United States to be tried on charges that carry a 175-year jail term.
Mr Christensen, a hard right Nationals MP, said that Assange was struggling to cope.
“He’s been dehumanised and depersonalised with this ongoing campaign,” he said.
“The reality behind Julian Assange is that he’s a bloke that’s very worried about his family that was quite clear from the discussion we had.
“He was talking about his mum. His mum has just experienced the bushfires we had in Australia, he was talking about his kids.”
Assange’s mother Christine told News Corp Australia in December that she was not celebrating Christmas because she was so distraught about her son’s case.
She added he had been a good father to his son Daniel.
Mr Wilkie, an independent MP and former whistleblower, demanded that the UK government stop the extradition trial.
He also wanted the Australian government to speak up for Assange even though the case was being heard in the UK.
Mr Wilkie said the potential US prison term was essentially a “life sentence” and added he would be at risk of extradition in Australia if he went back home.
“There is a concern if Julian succeeds he might be deported to Australia,” Mr Wilkie said in London.
“The extradition agreement between Australia to the US is much more loose than the UK to the US.”
The United States has accused him of 17 counts of espionage over leaks of government information in 2010 and 2011 about American actions in the Afghan and Iraq wars.
Some of the footage has been labelled war crimes.
Assange also leaked a cache of embarrassing diplomatic cables among hundreds of thousands of documents under consideration.
He has also been charged with one count of computer hacking for allegedly helping US soldier Chelsea Manning access a computer system.
Assange’s father John Shipton, 75, said that he had concerns for his son’s health because he had lost at least 15kg while inside Belmarsh.
He said outside the jail that his son had family in the UK and he would “pick him up in a taxi” if the UK courts would allow him to be bailed while the trial, which is expected to take years, goes on.
Mr Shipton visited him last week where they talked about the “women in their lives” and he said his son was trying to stay positive about his case.
Assange’s Australian lawyer Jennifer Robinson said her client would receive different treatment had he exposed the secrets of the Saudi Arabian regime, rather than the United States government.
The United States has argued that Assange dumped online the names of people who had supported the Americans in the wars, putting their lives at risk, as part of the leaked documents.
There has been debate about whether Assange’s actions were as a journalist and whether that should be protected.
He won a Walkley Award in Australia for stories based on some of the leaks.
WikiLeaks editor in chief Kristinn Hrafnsson said Assange had been working as a journalist.
The case begins on February 24.