Former California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R) said Thursday that he discussed a possible presidential pardon with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in exchange for proof that Russia didn’t hack into the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) email, Yahoo News reported.
Rohrabacher told Yahoo News that he held a three-hour meeting at the Ecuadorian Embassy in August 2017 when he informed Assange of the potential deal. The former congressman said he aimed to gather proof for a widely debunked theory that former DNC staffer Seth Rich, who was killed in Washington in 2016, leaked the information, rather than Russian intelligence agents hacking the system.
The theory would negate U.S. intelligence agencies’ and Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors’ conclusions that Russian operatives hacked the DNC email.
“I spoke to Julian Assange and told him if he would provide evidence about who gave WikiLeaks the emails, I would petition the president to give him a pardon,” Rohrabacher told Yahoo News. “He knew I could get to the president.”
He said in the interview that he wanted “truthful” information from Assange and was not pressuring him to “lie.”
The former congressman said he called the then-White House Chief of Staff John Kelly after the meeting, saying Kelly was “courteous” but made no commitment to bring it up with President Trump. He didn’t speak to Kelly again on the matter and never had a direct discussion with the president.
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Rohrabacher tells Yahoo he discussed pardon with Assange for proof Russia didn't hack DNC email https://t.co/NNZDpjc5Oa pic.twitter.com/0lRfeIAQvn
— The Hill (@thehill) February 20, 2020
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