Did Trump Offer To Pardon Julian Assange In Return For Covering Up For Russia

It was big news-- or should have been-- the other day when Julian Assange's attorney, testifying at an extradition hearing in London, said that Trump offered him a pardon, through then-Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) for reporting that Russia didn't give him the stolen DNC documents that were subsequently published by Wikileaks. Yesterday, Rohrabacher, in an interview with Yahoo News, gave his version of what happened, which was slightly different from Assange's testimony.

Rohrabacher confirmed that he did offer Assange the pardon but said the offer hadn't come from Trump, just that he could talk Trump into it. Rohrabacher confirmed that during his 2017 three-hour meeting with Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy, he told him he "would get" Trump to give him a pardon if he turned over information proving the Russians had not been the source of internal Democratic National Committee emails published by WikiLeaks. Rohrabacher was trying to prove the source of the documents was murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich, not Russia, a long debunked conspiracy theory on the far right.

Assange contends that Trump sent Rohrabacher to offer the pardon. Rohrabacher says he was acting on his own and that he never spoke with Señor Trumpanzee about Assange and only told Assange he would "petition" Trump for the pardon. He says he spoke with then-chief of staff John Kelly about Assange's willingness to cooperate but never heard back from the White House. Assange implied that in asking him to "play ball," the White House was asking him to lie, although Assange, a useful idiot, has said he didn't get the materials from Russia. Rohrabacher says he didn't want any lies, just the truth. Rohrabacher's official story is now: "When speaking with Julian Assange, I told him that if he could provide me information and evidence about who actually gave him the DNC emails, I would then call on President Trump to pardon him. At no time did I offer a deal made by the President, nor did I say I was representing the President."

Rohrabacher, who lost his reelection bid to ex-Republican New Dem Harley Rouda in the traditionally Republican district (PVI is R+4, although it performed as a D+7 district in the reelection contest), 157,837 (53.6%) to 136,899 (46.4%), in part because many voters believed Rohrabacher was a Russian agent. Rohrabacher now works as a consultant to the cannabis industry.


Let's get the hell out of this damn Republican nightmare! This hits us in the heart. Our minds say "Compassion" This is what Bernie has and that all the other candidates lack. Now listen to Lia Rose covering the Francine Jarry song. We are the ones we've been waiting for!