Former Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California confirmed to Yahoo News on Thursday that he had indeed offered a pardon to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in 2017.
“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 said. “He knew I could get to the president.”
This comes after news of Assange claiming in a British court that he was offered a pardon in exchange for saying Russia didn’t hack the DNC.
However, Rohrabacher said there is no evidence the President knew about it. He called the chief of staff John Kelly and told him of the potential deal. Rohrabacher said he was courteous but there was no indication he would even share the proposal with the President. Rohrabacher never heard back from Kelly.
Rohrabacher also emphasized in the interview that he only wanted “truthful” information from Assange and never suggested that he “lie.” But he said he believed then — and even more so now — that the information he was seeking would prove that WikiLeaks got its DNC emails from Seth Rich.
PUTIN WANTS TRUMP
On top of this, CNN and the NY Times report that Russian President Vladimir Putin favors Donald Trump in the election and is taking steps to help Trump win.
The NY Times:
Intelligence officials warned House lawmakers last week that Russia was interfering in the 2020 campaign to try to get President Trump re-elected, five people familiar with the matter said, a disclosure to Congress that angered Mr. Trump, who complained that Democrats would use it against him.
The day after the Feb. 13 briefing to lawmakers, Mr. Trump berated Joseph Maguire, the outgoing acting director of national intelligence, for allowing it to take place, people familiar with the exchange said. Mr. Trump cited the presence in the briefing of Representative Adam B. Schiff, the California Democrat who led the impeachment proceedings against him, as a particular irritant.
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During the briefing to the House Intelligence Committee, Mr. Trump’s allies challenged the conclusions, arguing that he has been tough on Russia and strengthened European security. Some intelligence officials viewed the briefing as a tactical error, saying that had the official who delivered the conclusion spoken less pointedly or left it out, they would have avoided angering the Republicans.
CNN is repeating the story, claiming sources told them the same thing.
WHY WOULD RUSSIA WANT TRUMP?
Russia worked so well the first time, the media is going for it again. Chances are very good that these are very inaccurate stories.
Why would Russia want Trump? The Democrats are weak on foreign affairs and would give away the store. Then-President Obama disarmed Ukraine and Russia took Crimea. President Trump has re-armed them.
When Russia wanted the defense shield kept out of Poland’s hands, Obama did it for nothing in exchange. Trump restored the defense shield.
Trump sanctioned Russia and expelled diplomats, strengthened NATO, pressured Germany not to use Russian energy, and he has attacked Putin’s allies.
Trump is not good for Russia.
And what does “interfering” mean exactly? Reporter Michael Tracey thinks he knows. It’s to keep it vague and harder to counteract.
Russia is “interfering” to help Trump win the 2020 election how, exactly? More semi-coherent Twitter trolls and cartoon Facebook memes? The reason the word “interfere” has been used so constantly since 2016 is because it’s deliberately vague and could mean virtually anything
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) February 21, 2020
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