Julian Assange
US President Donald Trump said he was ready to pardon the creator of the WikiLeaks website, Julian Assange, if he named the source from whom he received the texts of letters from the hacked servers of the Democratic Party in 2016. This is reported by Reuters with reference to the journalist's lawyer Jennifer Robinson.
The defense attorney said she is aware of a meeting with former GOP congressman Dan Rohrabacher and activist Charles Johnson, who are believed to be close to Trump's team. It is indicated that they passed the condition of the head of state, who, in turn, is ready to assist in pardoning Assange.
Earlier in the press, information has already appeared that Trump offered Assange a pardon if he said that Russia was not involved in the leakage of Democratic letters. It was noted that such an offer in August 2017 was transmitted through Rohrabacher.
In October 2016, shortly before the US presidential election, the WikiLeaks website published the correspondence of John Podesta – the chairman of the campaign of the US presidential candidate from the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton. The letters addressed issues of nuclear energy, as well as donations to the Clinton Foundation from mining. Clinton blamed Russia for disseminating this information and failing in the elections.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed 17 charges against Assange in May 2019, later adding another. In case of extradition to the United States, which is currently being held, the founder of WikiLeaks faces up to 175 years in prison.
In 2012, fearing extradition to Sweden due to rape charges (the case was dropped in 2019), Assange applied for asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. There he was continuously for almost seven years. Assange is currently serving a prison sentence in the UK for violating bail conditions.
