Posted on 09/26/2017 8:12:50 PM PDT by Mount Athos
President Donald Trump is being blocked from knowing he can pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in exchange for information vindicating Russia of hacking allegations, according to Republican California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher.
Trump told reporters Sunday that he has “never heard” of a potential deal with Assange.
“I think the president’s answer indicates that there is a wall around him that is being created by people who do not want to expose this fraud that there was collusion between our intelligence community and the leaders of the Democratic Party,” Rohrabacher told The Daily Caller Tuesday in a phone interview.
Rohrabacher met with Assange in August at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where the WikiLeaks founder has lived in asylum since 2012 due to now-dropped sexual assault charges in Sweden. However, American authorities are reportedly still investigating Assange for his role in disseminating thousands of classified U.S. documents.
The California congressman told TheDC in August that Assange promised him information that reveals Russia is not behind the hacking and leaking of Democratic National Committee emails during the 2016 election, as U.S. intelligence officials have claimed.
The U.S intelligence community has also said that Russian state actors were involved with the hacking and leaking of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s emails. Rohrabacher told TheDC Tuesday that he “didn’t go into detail other than the DNC” with Assange.
The WikiLeaks founder has previously said that Russia was not the source of either the Podesta or DNC emails that his site released.
Rohrabacher said that a pardon would likely have to occur for Assange to give up this information about the source of the DNC emails. Assange has long maintained that he would never reveal a source, but Rohrabacher said that Assange now “wants to get out of the Ecuadorian embassy.”
Rohrabacher told TheDC that he has yet to view the information Assange says vindicates Russia, but that Assange would be able to exchange it if the president “is on board.” The president is able to preemptively pardon someone.
The congressman spoke to chief of staff John Kelly two weeks ago about the potential deal with Assange. The Wall Street Journal reported that Kelly told Rohrabacher to bring the information to the intelligence community.
“This would have to be a cooperative effort between his own staff and the leadership in the intelligence communities to try to prevent the president from making the decision as to whether or not he wants to take the steps necessary to expose this horrendous lie that was shoved down the American people’s throats so incredibly earlier this year,” Rohrabacher said.
Several media outlets have covered Rohrabacher’s comments about a potential deal with Assange and Trump is known to be an avid consumer of media. However, it has recently been reported that Kelly is blocking certain news articles from reaching the president’s desk.
Rohrabacher previously worked as a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan and told TheDC: “This happens in every administration, and it’s a great disservice to the president.”
“It’s an undercutting of democracy when the guy who’s elected, his staffers take it upon themselves to make the decision rather than let the actual president make the decision.”
“I am confident that if the president is permitted to know that this avenue is open to him to debunk the horrible lie that was told to the American people about him stealing the election with the help of the Russians… that I think the president will accept it if he’s permitted to know.”
What crime did Assange commit for which he can be pardoned by a US president?
Hurting Hillary’s feelings
Sounds like a whole lotta nothing.
President Trump knows nothing about the deal with Asange? Impossible. Surely President Trump surfs the Internet, knows how to use Google, etc.
I simply do not believe President Trump lives in such a bubble.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I didn’t think the President could pardon a non-US citizen. Assange is Austrailian. The AG could give him full immunity however.
I’d heard that they were trying to keep this away from him, so I do believe it. He does live in a bubble actually, though he clearly watches Fox. But the Luther Strange endorsement alone should tell you that he’s not getting the full picture. It’s disturbing as hell. If it can be proven that Russia had nothing to do with the Wikileaks emails, poof goes the entire Russian narrative.
Dana is playing with fire.
We all know that the Deep State colluded to make Hillary President and is colluding to block Trump, but you can’t say it.
Don’t walk alone at night.
The narrative should go on. Clintonesque. Delay.
President Trump is now to be described as a captive crazy man now? Good lord but their propoganda is heavy-handed and clumsy.
This possibility (of a “deal”) is interesting, but also incredibly dangerous. Assange may or may not be able to provide utterly conclusive information. Does he really have perfectly reliable evidence of the source? Or could it be argued that he (and then President Trump) were played by disinformation???
I’m not saying I give credence to the “Russia, Russia” b.s that’s been spewed by the Democraps and MSM, but unless Assange can provide utterly conclusive evidence leading back to the original source, there could be one or more intermediaries to screw up the picture. It IS possibly, surely, that Assange has been played and/or that he would try to play the USA, in order to gain his freedom and possibly also just to stick it to the USA.
The worst thing would be for President Trump to grant a pardon for less than conclusive evidence, because then it would become part of the “obstruction of justice” chant of the Democraps, et al.
Didn't he commit conspiracy to commit espionage? You don't think Brad;ley Manning committed a crime? Assange was an accomplice.
Does President Trump not surf Free Republic ? Then he would surely know.
McMaster and DeStefano.
Assange is a self-absorbed opportunist, nothing more. Trump really doesn't like or trust the guy.
Rohrabacher is my Congressman. I’ve e-mailed him a few times about him being able to get a meeting with the President regarding the Assange information.
Yesterday, I just sent him a version of the below clip & told him that it appears the President does not know anything about the Assange information.
It is difficult to hear, but at about the :15 mark the question is asked.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1djVKz9SgbE
It's already been proven. Didn't you see the article on "New Republic" ( a liberal magazine ) explaining how they proved the data was obtained directly off the DNC network by an inside source?
It has to do with the time stamps in the released Data dump. The time stamps show the data was moved at a speed of 23 megabits per second, which is impossible for them to do through an internet connection to the DNC (they tested this) but is the normal download speed to a flash drive plugged directly into a network computer.
The fastest transfer speed they could obtain in testing the DNC internet connection was 11 megabits per second, and the experts assert that an international connection couldn't even move data that fast.
The DNC emails were copied by someone in the system, and most people think it was murdered DNC employee, Seth Rich.
The only "rape" that ever existed was a little morning after regret. The "victim" has renounced the charges.
Didn't he commit conspiracy to commit espionage? You don't think Brad;ley Manning committed a crime? Assange was an accomplice.
I think the definitive case was the Pentagon Papers and Daniel Ellsberg, where it was decided that classified information given to the New York Times, and their subsequent publication of that information, did not incriminate them.
It is very difficult to convict Assange for doing the same thing with Manning, although the two-faced New York Times will be in there rooting for just that outcome.
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