Assange offered pardon if he co-operated over email leak, UK court hears

Re:Assange offered pardon if he co-operated over email leak,... by fit2rule on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @04:11PM (#22370107)

I think the anti-Assange/anti-Trump clan are trying to get ahead of this story and positioning it as if it were another quid pro quo situation, which is insidious and duplicitous to say the least - because actually there are a lot of political hacks who are headed for deep embarrassment if Assange can demonstrate that, indeed, Russia was not behind the DNC leak which embarrassed Clinton and 'cost her the election'.

Trump telling Assange "okay, so .. come out and tell the world that the DNC leaks weren't Russia-sourced and if you can provide evidence that this is true, I will pardon you" is not the same as Trump saying "cover up Russia's involvement in the DNC leak, and I'll pardon you" - but yet, the positioning in mainstream media so far (its only been a few hours) is definitely making it seem like the former.

Until we can refer to the sources (you know, "avoid fake news by going to the source"), this should be treated as fake news either way. The hearing hasn't even ramped up yet and we are already knee-deep in Russiagate nonsense already.

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Re:Assange offered pardon if he co-operated over email leak,... by jayd16 on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @04:24PM (#22370248)

In what world is this not a quid pro quo and political extortion of Assange? The president should not be involved and withholding a pardon to squeeze out political favors is not acceptable in any form.

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Re:Assange offered pardon if he co-operated over email leak,... by eldude on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @04:58PM (#22370524)

Lol. “Withholding a pardon” likes it’s an entitlement and not granting it indicates corruption...

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Re:Assange offered pardon if he co-operated over email leak,... by paulryanrogers on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @06:12PM (#22371134)

How about "dangling a pardon to squeeze out the desired response"?

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Re:Assange offered pardon if he co-operated over email leak,... by eldude on Thursday February 20, 2020 @03:02PM (#22378061)

So, dangling a pardon to solicit irrefutable proof of a crime by the DNC in lying about the source of the email leak and fabricating the forensics through Crowdstrike?

We should surely go after Trump and not the perpetrators of the underlying crimes! More misdirection to hide their crimes a la Biden & Ukraine, Hillary & China.

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Re:Assange offered pardon if he co-operated over email leak,... by paulryanrogers on Sunday February 23, 2020 @10:11PM (#22401319)

I was not suggesting justice should only be sought for Trump's suspicious actions. In fact I would have voted to boot both Clinton's and Trump.

Corruption isn't limited to one side or the other. Party line votes in both past impeachments prove the US does not yet have a working judicial process for sitting presidents. (Except perhaps from those few jurors who crossed over such as Romney.)

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Re:Assange offered pardon if he co-operated over email leak,... by jayd16 on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @08:43PM (#22372053)

If someone should be pardoned, withholding the pardon for the purpose of coercion is extortion. If they should not be pardoned, offering a pardon for the purpose of a political favor is corruption.

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Re:Assange offered pardon if he co-operated over email leak,... by Gibbon1 on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @08:47PM (#22372075)

Seems like once you've done that due process is violated.

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Re:Assange offered pardon if he co-operated over email leak,... by eldude on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @09:44PM (#22372279)

Lol. “Should be pardoned.” I’m not sure you’re getting it.

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Re:Assange offered pardon if he co-operated over email leak,... by orf on Thursday February 20, 2020 @02:07AM (#22373273)

I’m not sure you are. Using the promise of a pardon, with the implicit threat of upcoming or continuing prison time, to coerce someone into doing something politically favourable for you is extortion.

And yes, some people “should be pardoned”. I wouldn’t say a guy convicted of war crimes or a corrupt governor falls into that category though.

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Re:Assange offered pardon if he co-operated over email leak,... by eldude on Thursday February 20, 2020 @01:01PM (#22377038)

Except it’s not extortion bc there is no threat of action particularly of the sort where one is obligated or expected by duty or ethically, despite your dogged perception that circumstances can entitle one to a pardon.

Further, there is no muh quid pro quo threat of prison time as it predates this.

Of course it also helps that none of this even happened and is Fake News and misinformation, but again muh “extortion”.

>Upon my return, I spoke briefly with Gen. Kelly. I told him that Julian Assange would provide information about the purloined DNC emails in exchange for a pardon. No one followed up with me including Gen. Kelly and that was the last discussion I had on this subject with anyone representing Trump or in his Administration.

https://www.rohrabacher.com/news/my-meeting-with-julian-assa...

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Re:Assange offered pardon if he co-operated over email leak,... by jasonlotito on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @04:16PM (#22370157)

Looking at the sources, so far, the White House has already been found out to have lied in it's opening statement about this, and the OP here confused whether the Source was Russia and whether Russia was involved. Sure, need to hear more, but so far, with Rohrabacher admitting to working on this exact thing in 2017, it's more real than fake.

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