US President Donald Trump has offered to pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange if he says Russia was not involved in the release of Democratic Party emails in 2016.
This was said on Wednesday in a London court in the preliminary proceedings regarding the US request for Assange's extradition. A trial on that request is scheduled to begin Monday, and a decision is expected in a few months.
Assange appeared at the hearing the day before yesterday via video link from prison.
Assange's lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, referred to testimony from former Republican congressman Dana Rohrbacher, who visited Assange in 2017 and said the president sent him to offer the pardon.
It would come on the condition that Assange says Russia was not involved in the email leak that damaged Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign against Trump, Rohrbacher said in a statement.
White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham denied those allegations.
"The president hardly knows Dana Rohrbacher except as a former congressman. He never talked to him about that subject or almost any other subject. It is a complete fabrication and a total lie," she said.
Rohrbacher, known as a big supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said he made the proposal on his own initiative. He said he offered Assange to ask Trump for a pardon if he told him how he got to the media.
US intelligence agencies found that Russia interfered in the 2016 election in an attempt to help Trump win, in part by hacking and releasing emails damaging to Clinton.
Russia has denied meddling, and Trump has denied any campaign collusion with Moscow. US special counsel Robert Mueller has not found that members of the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the election.
Assange, 48, who was held in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for seven years before being freed last April, is wanted in the US on 18 counts, including conspiracy to hack into government computers and violating espionage laws. He could spend decades behind bars if convicted.
Nearly a decade after his website WikiLeaks angered Washington by publishing classified US documents, Woolwich Crown Court in London will begin hearings on Monday - with Assange present - to decide whether he will be extradited to the United States.
The extradition hearing process will be split into two parts, with the second half delayed until May.
Australian-born Assange made headlines in early 2010 when WikiLeaks released classified US military footage showing a 2007 Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two journalists.
Assange presents himself as a champion of freedom of speech holding a superpower to account, but critics accuse him of irresponsibly endangering lives by publishing unredacted information.
Mijatović: Extradition would have a terrifying impact on media freedom
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović assessed that Assange should not be extradited to the USA due to the potential impact of the case on media freedom and concerns about his ill treatment.
The potential extradition has implications for human rights that go far beyond his individual case, Mijatović stated in a statement on her Twitter account.
"The indictment raises important questions about the protection of those who publish confidential information in the public interest, as well as those who reveal human rights violations. The broad and vague nature of the allegations against Julian Assange and the offenses listed in the indictment are worrisome because many relate to the essential activities of investigative journalism in Europe and elsewhere," said Mijatović.
She added that accordingly, allowing Assange's extradition on that basis would have a "chilling impact on media freedom" and could ultimately hinder the media from performing their role as information providers and public watchdogs in democratic societies.
She added that extradition in circumstances where the person would be at risk of torture or inhumane or degrading treatment would be contrary to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Bonus video:
