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Lawyer: Assange Was Offered US Pardon If He Cleared Russia

Associated Press

   LONDON - A lawyer for Julian Assange said Wednesday that the WikiLeaks
   founder plans to claim during his extradition hearing that he was
   offered a pardon by the Trump administration if he agreed to say Russia
   was not involved in leaking Democratic National Committee emails during
   the 2016 U.S. election campaign.

   Assange is fighting extradition to the United States on spying charges,
   and his full court hearing is due to begin next week.

   At a preliminary hearing, lawyer Edward Fitzgerald said that in August
   2017, then-Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher visited Assange at
   the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

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