21 February 2020 - Trump offers to pardon Julian Assange if he denies Russia hacking
Julian Assange’s lawyers say Trump offered pardon in exchange for concealing source of DNC leaks
Russell Brandom (The Verge, 19/02/2020)
Julian Assange’s legal team is preparing to testify that the WikiLeaks founder was offered a pardon by President Trump in exchange for covering up the source of the DNC leaks, as first reported by The Daily Beast.
According to Edward Fitzgerald, who is representing Assange in his ongoing extradition hearing in the UK, Assange’s representatives received messages from then-Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), effectively offering a pardon from Trump in exchange for false statements relating to the source of the DNC leaks.
If Trump did try a quid pro quo with Julian Assange, let's not react like we've been beaten with an apathy bat again
Amee Vanderpool (The Independent, 20/02/2020)
An attorney for Julian Assange told Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on Wednesday that the WikiLeaks founder was offered a pardon by Donald Trump. This pardon came at a price: Trump allegedly wanted Assange to publicly deny Russia’s involvement in hacking and then leaking Democratic National Committee emails during the 2016 Presidential Election.
Assange is currently fighting extradition to the United States, where he faces 18 charges including conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, which could total a prison sentence of 175 years.
Defence lawyers say they will seek French asylum for Assange
The editorial staff (The Sydney Morning Herald, 21/02/2020)
French team member Eric Dupont-Moretti said Assange's case placed at stake "the fate and the status" of all journalists. "We consider the situation is sufficiently serious that our duty is to talk about it" with French President Emmanuel Macron, he said.
He was one of a team of lawyers lined up at a Paris news conference to explain why they view the case against Assange as unfair, citing his poor health and alleged violations of his rights while in jail in London.
French members of the team said they had been working on a "concrete demand" for Macron to grant Assange asylum in France, where he has children and where WikiLeaks was present at its founding.
Julian Assange case is the Dreyfus of our age, says John McDonnell
Ben Quinn (The Guardian, 20/02/2020)
The US attempt to extradite Julian Assange is the “the Dreyfus case of our age”, John McDonnell has said, as Europe’s human rights watchdog added her voice to opposition to the move. The shadow chancellor paid a two-hour visit to see Assange in Belmarsh prison in London on Thursday and said Britain’s standing in the world would be severely damaged if the extradition went ahead
It was claimed in a London court that Donald Trump had offered Assange a pardon if he would say Russia was not involved in leaking Democratic party emails.
McDonnell likening the plight of Assange to Alfred Dreyfus, the 19th-century Jewish French army officer who was tried and convicted on charges of treason amid a climate of antisemitism.