Julian Assange
We are in the tricky position here of assuming that just because Donald Trump is a serial liar, everything anyone who contradicts him might say is true, but it seems that Dana Rohrabacher conveyed a pardon offer from Trump to Julian Assange. Assange, who has already denied—apparently almost no one in U.S. intelligence believes him[1]—that the Russians were behind “Gucifer 2.0,” who leaked “stolen” emails exposing Democratic National Committee favoritism for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primaries, was to receive a pardon for doing so.[2] We actually still don’t really know, but merely “believe,” that the Russians were behind it.[3] We do know that Clinton had indeed taken over the DNC.[4]
John Simpson, “Trump ‘offered deal to pardon Julian Assange,’” Times, February 20, 2020, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/trump-offered-deal-to-pardon-julian-assange-zhtcfc2ld
- [1]Mark Mazzetti and Katie Benner, “12 Russian Agents Indicted in Mueller Investigation,” New York Times, July 13, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/13/us/politics/mueller-indictment-russian-intelligence-hacking.html↩
- [2]John Simpson, “Trump ‘offered deal to pardon Julian Assange,’” Times, February 20, 2020, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/trump-offered-deal-to-pardon-julian-assange-zhtcfc2ld↩
- [3]Philip Bump, “What we know — and don’t know — about WikiLeaks, Julian Assange and the 2016 campaign,” Washington Post, April 11, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/04/11/what-we-know-dont-know-about-wikileaks-julian-assange-campaign/↩
- [4]Donna Brazile, “Inside Hillary Clinton’s Secret Takeover of the DNC,” Politico, November 2, 2017, https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/02/clinton-brazile-hacks-2016-215774↩