WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London under asylum since 2012 following sexual assault charges he was facing in Sweden but those charges have now been dropped. Despite this, The United States is seeking charges against Assange and his role in releasing hundreds of thousands of classified documents.
Many of which were deemed helpful in the 2016 Presidential election.
Now, it seems, that a pardon may be underway.
As reported by The Daily Caller:
California Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher spoke to White House chief of staff John Kelly Wednesday about a potential deal with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in exchange for info that exonerates Russia of hacking allegations, according to a Friday report from The Wall Street Journal.
The Daily Caller first reported that Rohrabacher met with Assange in mid-August. Rohrabacher later spoke to TheDC and said that Assange could potentially be pardoned for “information that will be of dramatic importance to the United States.”
And according to MorningStar.com, The possible “deal” — a term used by Rohrabacher during the Wednesday phone call — would involve a pardon of Assange or “something like that,” Rohrabacher said. In exchange, Assange would probably present a computer drive or other data-storage device that Rohrabacher said would exonerate Russia in the long-running controversy about who was the source of hacked and stolen material aimed at embarrassing the Democratic Party during the 2016 election.
“He would get nothing, obviously, if what he gave us was not proof,” Rohrabacher said.
Rohrabacher confirmed he spoke to Kelly this week but declined to discuss the content of their conversation. “I can’t confirm or deny anything about a private conversation at that level,” he said in a brief interview. He declined to elaborate further.
A Trump administration official confirmed Friday that Rohrabacher spoke to Kelly about the plan involving Assange.
