Last month, House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation chairman Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. This meeting led to a potential deal being brought to the White House by Rohrabacher.
Under this deal, which was reported by the Wall Street Journal, Assange would provide conclusive proof that Russia was not the source of hacked emails WikiLeaks published. In return, he would be offered a pardon, or some other assurance that he wouldn’t be prosecuted by the US for involvement in WikiLeaks.
Rohrabacher brought this deal to the White House Wednesday, but Chief of Staff John Kelly not only apparently didn’t like the offer, but didn’t tell President Trump that the offer had been made, instead telling Rohrabacher to take the proposal to the intelligence community.
The intelligence community almost certainly wouldn’t be in a position to offer any sort of amnesty for Assange, which likely means the end of the proposal. Rohrabacher offered to set up a meeting between Assange and a Trump representative, but that too appears to have been dismissed by Kelly.
Rohrabacher expressed willingness to talk to the CIA about the matter, but also said he believes such talks would have considerable limitations because the CIA had already gone along with the false Russia hacking claims and would want to maintain “the big lie.”
With many officials having already made their decision as to which side of the WikiLeaks narrative they’re on, securing actual evidence from WikiLeaks would likely be a hugely controversial matter, and even if such proof exists, it’s probably going to provoke a new scandal surrounding making a deal after years of vilifying Assange.
Obviously Trump must now know about this. Make the deal Donald.
Go away, troll.
wow its nice to get an occasional silver lining
Assange could break this by putting out the evidence ANYWAY. If it’s solid enough it would give force to ‘intermediaries’ in other countries. Euro countries have a strong economic interest in keeping Russia alive and prosperous, and would welcome a reason to push back against US nonsense on this subject. Germany is already getting tired of US fakery. It’s starting to officially question the Syria story.
Maybe the German Government should actually publish the actual details of the US Al Nusra Front ISIS affair! Show exactly how ISIS came into being, through US funding of regime change using Al Nusra Front as their so called Moderate Muslim insurgents, and that they begat ISIS as their child! The US effectively trained ISIS troops
Assange has to protect his source or else he will have no credibility with future sources.
Trump seems to trust John Kelly to much . I and most of the American people trust WikiLeaks more . Trump will overrule John Kelly if he is with us . Maybe Trump has changed his mind on changing America back to what it used to be ? WikiLeaks might point to some criminals in the democrat party and even solve Seth Rich’s murder . We don’t want to do that .
Trump is highly motivated to put an end to the “Russian collusion” assault onhis presidency. For John Kelly to obstruct that, and further to even prevent Trump from hearing about it — which of course fails because it’s in the public domain now — pretty much inarguably paints John Kelly as yet another enemy of the president. His own chief of staff(!!!!) has now –blatantly?, brazenly? — shown himself to be part of the “Trump neutralization program”. Part of the deep State crowd that believes that they, not the American people, not the president, are the ones in charge.
It will be interesting to see if he gets pink-slipped for this grotesque insubordination and disloyalty as instantaneously as did Sally Yates.
This was probably a wise move by Kelly because it would have backfired badly. I am vehemently anti-Trump, however I strongly believe that Russia was most definitely not WikiLeak’s source. The real source was likely either from within the DNC itself (possibly Seth Rich?) or from factions within the intelligence community/Military Industrial Complex (who were appalled that Trump was asking on the campaign trail, “why can’t we just get along with Putin?”, or from some combination of the two.
How dare Trump suggest we should just get along with Putin? This was heresy.
That candidate Trump said many things with which I agreed (his comments on Afghanistan is an excellent example), he has done a complete 180 on many issues and has now surrounded himself with many of the Neo-Con warmonger garbage that he attacked on the campaign for being so wrong so often.
To be fair Obama followed this same dynamic, saying many things I agreed with on the campaign trail and then doing a complete 180 once elected. The ‘Surge’ in Afghanistan was one example when that jackass McCrystal talked him into increasing troop levels. Another was saying that “whistleblowers” are a necessary part of a healthy democracy” and then becoming draconian toward whistleblowers.
This begs the question as to whether the civilian government actually really runs the country or if “The Deep State” is really in charge. I read somewhere recently where one commentator arguing that one of the (few) advantages of having a deep state is that they won’t allow Trump to attack North Korea, because they understand the difference between “Nuclear War and Real Estate”.
Don’t call me a Putin troll. Putin has openly said that in the US elected Presidents or the party have no impact on the most important policies of the country. I agree.
They are scared of being exposed by the truth.
Just because someone floated a baseless rumor and/or scam theory to cover their loss doesn’t give it any reason to have taxpayer money utilized in an ongoing investigation that goes from baseless rumor to baseless rumor as a cover to hide the real news about the endless criminal wars and their horror. The scum buckets behind this scam have enabled the death and destruction, to continue unabated to the detriment of the world.
Trump’s generals clique are merely Deep State operatives pushing neocon fakery and the usual military worship. Of course Kelly wants to keep Assange locked up. To take Rohrabacher’s deal would mean exposing the entire Deep State establishment myth of Russian election interference in 2016.
So they don’t want that, and won’t take any deal that risks the truth coming out. Trump is too dumb (or evil) to care.
So far the only actual factual evidence which seems proven is Facebook’s admission that they sold some online ads to some Russian outfit. Gosh, who knew stealing an election could be so cheap, simple and easy? And Zuckerberg seemed to have no qualms either! If this theory were to be taken as gospel, shouldn’t Zuck be tried for treason? Selling out his country to evil foreigners for a handful of silver? Facebook should be bragging about how effective their page advertising really is! “We dictated the 2016 presidential election outcome! We can do the same for your acne face cream!”
Weird how absurd claims of Russian interference are never challenged. Even Zuck is not that dumb. But they are counting on the public to be so.
“If this theory were to be taken as gospel, shouldn’t Zuck be tried for treason?”
Since treason is constitutionally impossible at this time (the crime is constitutionally defined as specific to war, a legal state in which the US has not been for the better part of a century), no.
the crime outside of war is known in some places as sedition, in this matter however I confess I do not know the take of Sedition under US Law!
The US has at least some kind of sedition laws. The one I recall being prosecuted is “seditious conspiracy,” e.g. a conspiracy to overthrow the government. I doubt that would describe Zuckerberg’s actions, either. It’s generally associated with the acquisition of military weaponry and intent to use that weaponry, not with selling ads to trolls.
One day we will know who “Deep Throat” is.
How could anyone in the “US intelligence community” or the White House even consider truth? forgettaboutit!!
I hate the motherf**ker but I’m pretty sure Bannon would have made the deal.
I am afraid neither Trump nor Bannon has any authority to decide anything in such matters – its done by the deep state. And the deep state has already expelled Bannon and neutered Trump.
Do it, Trump. Seriously. You’re not chicken, are you?
Let everyone note who the most powerful man in the world is…and it isn’t Trump. Information is power, and Kelly is keeping information from the President.
Assange can publish the truth about the hacks all he wants, but if it doesn’t get into the mainstream press, it will have no effect. It will just be more ‘alternative press’ noise that the pols will ignore.
Yes, because there’s just no way for the billionaire head of a large business organization, who also happens to be president of the United States, to get information unless John Kelly gives it to him.
One day her great great great great great great great grandson will command the USS Enterprise.
A story you won’t find on MSNBC methinks.