Journalist Who Met With Assange: ‘I Am Willing to Testify Before Any Government Body’
Cassandra Fairbanks
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Charles Johnson, the journalist who arranged and participated in the meeting between Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and Julian Assange, is so convinced that there was no Russian involvement in the leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee that he is willing to go to jail to make the point.
The historic meeting marked the first time that a US Congressman has ever went to meet with the publisher in person.
“Assange proved without a shadow of a doubt who was involved in the 2016 DNC leaks,” Johnson told Big League Politics. “I am willing to testify before any government body about it.”
Johnson added, “and I am willing to go to jail to make the point.”
When asked if he had been contacted by any authorities or threatened with jail in relation to his meeting with Assange, Johnson stated that he had not.
“They want it to go away so we won’t embarrass the intelligence agencies,” Johnson said.
Rohrabacher reportedly met with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly two weeks ago, providing him with details about his meeting with Assange in August, and requesting that Assange be pardoned in exchange for the information.
On Sunday, President Donald Trump was questioned about the offer — and told a reporter that he has “never heard that mentioned.”
“I’ve never heard that mentioned, really, I’ve never heard that mentioned,” Trump told a reporter at a New Jersey airport on Sunday.
Johnson is now claiming that Kelly is blocking the information and offer from reaching the president.
“Kelly is blocking this from getting to the president’s attention. I would fire Kelly for that,” Johnson told BLP.
Johnson is now calling for someone with the president’s ear to alert him of what has been going on.
“I have learned that John Kelly is blocking Congressman Dana Rohrabacher from telling the President the truth about the Wikileaks publication of the DNC. Please alert the president,” the well-connected journalist wrote on Facebook.
Rohrabacher told the Daily Caller that he believes the request for a preemptive pardon is justified.
“Thus if he comes up with that, you know he’s going to expect something in return. He can’t even leave the embassy to get out to Washington to talk to anybody if he doesn’t have a pardon,” Rohrabacher told TheDC.
“I think the president’s answer indicates that there is a wall around him that is being created by people who do not want to expose this fraud that there was collusion between our intelligence community and the leaders of the Democratic Party,” Rohrabacher added.
Though the United States has never filed charges against WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, President Donald Trump has the ability to grant a preemptive pardon for any crimes he may have committed — and he should. Preemptive pardons are rare, but not unheard of — with one being granted most famously by President Ford to Richard Nixon soon after he replaced him in the White House.
Assange entered the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on June 19, 2012, where he applied and was granted political asylum. Since that time, the building has been encircled by police waiting on standby to arrest him.
In 2016, after 16 months of investigation, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) concluded that Julian Assange is the victim of arbitrary detention. Not only did the group, made up of lawyers and human rights professionals, release an opinion that Assange should be released, they reported that he should be compensated by the governments of Sweden and the United Kingdom for “deprivation of liberty.”
When asked for comment, Assange referenced the quote in my Twitter bio, which is from the (fantastic) comic book series Transmetropolitan:
“You’re miserable, edgy and tired. You’re in the perfect mood for journalism.”
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