Julian Assange court appearance today- His lawyer mentioned a statement, that alleges former US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher visited Assange, saying he was there on behalf of the President, offering a pardon if JA would say Russia had nothing to do with DNC leaks. @SBSNews
The court heard the statement making this allegation was made by a member of Mr Assange’s legal team. It will be submitted as evidence in the hearing which begins Monday.
Expect we’ll hear more about this come the main hearing. Rest of today’s brief appearance was mainly administrative.
Need to add- all this detail is an allegation from a statement- that Mr Assange’s lawyer was paraphrasing in open court. And it’s a statement by one of Mr Assange’s own legal representatives.
Getting lots of Assange related questions- in short, it's an allegation (not proven) made in a statement by one of Mr Assange's own lawyers. We only know about its existence now as there was a discussion between judge and legal teams about the evidence that's being submitted.
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser said the evidence is admissible. That's not a ruling on its accuracy, just that Mr Assange's lawyers can submit it as part of their case.
Mr Assange's lawyer who mentioned the statement in court was Edward Fitzgerald QC. The statement itself is by Jennifer Robinson, Mr Assange's long time legal counsel.
Response from the former congressman- he says "At no time did I offer a deal made by the President, nor did I say I was representing the President." Suggestion by the Assange legal team today is that he did say he was 'on instructions from the President'.
