		<div class="wpcnt">
			<div class="wpa">
				<span class="wpa-about">Advertisements</span>
				<div class="u top_amp">
							<amp-ad width="300" height="265"
		 type="pubmine"
		 data-siteid="111265417"
		 data-section="1">
		</amp-ad>
				</div>
			</div>
		</div><p>Donald Trump offered WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange a pardon if he said Russia was not involved in the leak of Democratic National Committee emails, a court has heard.</p>
<p>The claim emerged as Assange, 48, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court ahead of an extradition hearing next week.</p>
<p>His barrister Edward Fitzgerald QC highlighted evidence alleging former US Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher had been to see Assange, while he was still in the Ecuadorian embassy in August 2017.</p>
<p>He said a statement from Assange’s lawyer Jennifer Robinson shows “Mr Rohrabacher going to see Mr Assange and saying, on instructions from the president, he was offering a pardon or some other way out, if Mr Assange… said Russia had nothing to do with the DNC leaks”.</p>
<p>A series of emails embarrassing for the Democrats and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign were hacked before being published by WikiLeaks in 2016.</p>
<p>District Judge Vanessa Baraitser said the evidence is admissible.</p>
<p>Assange is wanted in America to face 18 charges, including conspiring to commit computer intrusion, over the publication of US cables a decade ago.</p>
<p>He could face up to 175 years in jail if found guilty.</p>
<p>He is accused of working with former US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to leak hundreds of thousands of classified documents.</p>
<p>The extradition hearing is due to begin on Monday, beginning with a week of legal argument.</p>
<p>It will then be adjourned and continue with a three weeks of evidence scheduled to begin on May 18.</p>
<p>The decision, which is expected months later, is likely to be appealed against by the losing side, whatever the outcome.</p>
<p>Assange has been held on remand in prison since last September after serving a 50-week jail sentence for breaching his bail conditions while he was in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.</p>
<p>He entered the building in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over sex offence allegations, which he has always denied and were subsequently dropped.</p>
<p>Assange appeared in court on Wednesday by videolink from prison, wearing dark tracksuit bottoms and a brown jumper over a white shirt.</p>
<p>He spoke to confirm his name and date of birth, and sat holding a stack of papers during the hearing.</p>
<p>The hearing came after Australian MPs George Christensen and Andrew Wilkie called on Tuesday for Boris Johnson to intervene and stop the extradition hearing.</p>
<p>Labour&#8217;s shadow chancellor John McDonnell is expected to become the first British MP to see Assange behind bars in a visit on Thursday.</p>
<p>At a press conference on Tuesday it emerged that fellow inmates at the high-security prison successfully lobbied for his release from solitary confinement.</p>
<p>Speaking after the press conference, Assange’s father John Shipton said his son’s condition had improved, but said the extradition going ahead would be akin to a “death sentence”.</p>
			<div style="padding-bottom:15px;" class="wordads-tag" data-slot-type="belowpost">
				<div id="atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ece790c46a0">
					<script type="text/javascript">
						window.getAdSnippetCallback = function () {
							if ( false === ( window.isWatlV1 ?? false ) ) {
								// Use Aditude scripts.
								window.tudeMappings = window.tudeMappings || [];
								window.tudeMappings.push( {
									divId: 'atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ece790c46a0',
									format: 'belowpost',
								} );
							}
						}

						if ( document.readyState === 'loading' ) {
							document.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', window.getAdSnippetCallback );
						} else {
							window.getAdSnippetCallback();
						}
					</script>
				</div>
			</div>
Discover more from London Glossy Post
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
