It may be a long shot but even the notion of pardoning Julian Assange — dangled by a GOP lawmaker — has sent tremors through the intelligence community, The Hill reports.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher met with Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London where the WikiLeaks founder has been holed up for years, after which the California Republican reportedly is going to attempt to broker a deal with President Donald Trump.
According to Rohrabacher, Assange can provide proof that Russia did not interfere with the election — specifically the data theft of the Democrats — in exchange for a pardon, despite the fact Assange has not been charged with anything yet.
One problem with that notion — the entire U.S. intel community has declared that Russia did conspire to interfere with the election.
"It would send a terrible message to the intelligence community," Robert Deitz, formerly of the CIA and National Security Agency, told The Hill. "What moral are people supposed to draw from that? Why on earth would you believe Julian Assange before the intelligence community?"
"That would be appalling," Glenn Carle, a 23-year veteran of the CIA’s clandestine services, told The Hill.
But Assange has Rohrabacher convinced the whole thing was a con on the American people.
"When the American people realize that this is a con job and a power grab they'll be upset," Rohrabacher told Fox News.
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