U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), whose colleagues believe is paid by Vladimir Putin, meets with Julian Assange and Charles Johnson, a conservative political activist, at the Ecuador Embassy in London. Assange’s lawyer is also in attendance.
According to reports, Assange would promise to provide evidence that Russia was not involved with the 2016 WikiLeaks dumps or DNC hacks in exchange for Rohrabacher’s protection against U.S. authorities.
Rohrabacher later claims that he agreed to the meeting because he believes someone “sucked [the emails] out of the machine and hacked [it] back to Russia,” and he hoped the meeting would help him prove it.
Assange wanted an “assurance”-whether in the form of a pardon or otherwise-that he would not be taken into custody when he left the Ecuador Embassy.
Rohrabacher promised to “go back to the White House and see if we can arrange something where you won’t be arrested.” He then attempted but was “not permitted” to speak to Trump on the subject, and told the Committee that he did not communicate again with Assange about the potential deal. The Committee found no evidence to support Rohrabacher’ s theories or Assange’ s claims.
Select Committee on Intelligence, United States Senate
In 2021, a networked based in Spain obtains video of the meeting. The video reportedly shows Rohrabacher offering a pardon from Donald Trump in exchange for Assange declaring that Russia is not involved with sabotaging Hillary Clinton’s campaign or helping Trump. It’s unclear if this idea started with Assange, Rohrabacher, or Trump himself.
Rohrabacher claims this was not Trump’s idea.
Sources
https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/08/rohrabacher-russia-putin-2016/?utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=naytev&utm_medium=social
https://www.businessinsider.com/dana-rohrbacher-confirms-he-proposed-presidential-pardon-to-julian-assange-2020-2
