Charles C. Johnson who set up Assange meeting refuses to cooperate with Senate intelligence probe
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"I'm absolutely not" going to cooperate with the committee, Charles C. Johnson said in an interview after returning from London,
where he had set up a meeting this week between Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., and Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy.
"They're going to have to subpoena me and then they'll be sorely disappointed,"
Johnson said he and Rohrabacher came back from their meeting
with a specific proposal:
Grant a preemptive pardon to Assange (who has been under Justice Department investigation for years, although he has never been charged)
and the WikiLeaks founder would, in exchange,
turn over "irrefutable" evidence that he didn't get the Democratic National Committee emails from Russia, but from another source.
Assange wants to have a deal with the president," Johnson said.
"He believes he should be pardoned in the same way that Chelsea Manning was pardoned."
Once Assange turns his evidence over, showing the Russians were not the source of the DNC emails,
then the "president could put the kibosh" on the whole Russia investigation
being conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Johnson declined to say what Assange's supposed evidence actually is (though he did say it did not include any documents).
But he insisted he has spoken to unidentified figures in the White House
who have told him the president wants to hear the proposal.
"I know the president is interested in this," he said. "There will be a meeting between Rep. Rohrabacher and President Trump."
A spokesman for Rohrabacher confirmed that Johnson had arranged the meeting between the congressman and Assange.
"My understanding is that there is not yet a concrete proposal,
but that Dana does believe that if Assange does turn over the proof he's promised,
then he deserves a pardon," the spokesman said.