BREAKING VIDEO: Trump Asked If He’ll Pardon WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange if Elected President – His Answer Stuns the World
Former US president Donald Trump will give “very serious consideration” to pardoning Julian Assange if he is returned to office in the upcoming presidential election.
The Australian Wikileaks founder is currently fighting extradition to the United States, where he faces espionage charges carrying a maximum 175-year sentence for publishing classified information obtained from whistle-blower Chelsea Manning.
Trump was asked whether he would pardon the Australian citizen during a podcast interview with Youtuber Tim Pool.
Speaking to Tim Pool on the TimcastIRL podcast before his speech at the Libertarian National Convention, the host asked Trump directly about Assange.
“One more big one, will you pardon Julian Assange?” Pool said.
“Well I’m going to talk about that today [during my speech] and we’re going to give it very serious consideration, and we’re going to have a couple of other things to say in the speech that I think you’re going to love,” Trump replied.
Video below:
Assange, who is currently being held in Belmarsh Prison in the UK, has recently been granted the right to appeal his extradition to the U.S., where he faces charges under the Espionage Act of 1917.
The charges stem from WikiLeaks’ publication of thousands of classified U.S. military documents related to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars nearly 15 years ago. U.S. prosecutors argue that Assange helped whistleblower Chelsea Manning, a U.S. Army intelligence analyst, steal and leak the sensitive information.
In a major legal victory, Assange won a High Court bid in London to appeal extradition after the U.S. prosecution failed to provide adequate assurances demanded by judges.
In April President Joe Biden passively said he was “considering” the possibility of dropping the case against Assange in response to a question from a journalist about an Australian government request.
In his speech on Saturday, Trump talked about his potential use of clemency powers to influence other high profile cases. He promised to pardon his supporters who stormed the Capitol building on January 6, 2021.
Trump also promised to commute the life sentence of Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the Silk Road website and who has become somewhat of a libertarian icon. Ulbricht is serving a federal sentence for operating the darknet market from 2011 to 2013.
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