Australian member of Parliament George Christensen talks about his appeal to President Donald Trump and discusses the possibilities of a presidential pardon for the WikiLeaks publisher. Watch the replay.
President Donald Trump is reportedly weighing a pardon for imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange. George Christensen, a member of the Australian federal parliament, has added his voice to those calling for a pardon by writing to Trump urging him to free Assange as a defense of press freedom.
Join your hosts Elizabeth Vos, Joe Lauria and CN Live! executive producer Cathy Vogan. Watch the replay here:
https://www.georgechristensen.com.au/pardon-julian-assange/
It would be nice to think that Donald Trump is not so petty or vindictive ,as to hold the fact that Assange refused to give up the source of the DNC leaks against him in making a decision as to whether or not to pardon him …unfortunately it does appear to be stretching credulity to its limits to believe that….come on Donald Trump surprise and shame us!
Finally! Way to go Australia!
Lets get Assange Free for Christmas!!!
he hasn’t been extradited, let alone appeared in court.
A ‘pardon’ would infer guilt before innocence.
Better to pursuade u.s. administration to drop extradition proceedings
A pre-emptive pardon comes before a trial or a conviction so it infers no guilt at all.
Lets get him Free while he is still alive!
One wonders what Assange would reveal about Trump, once locked up in max security prison and tortured every day. Trump would do well to pardon him, and if Trump has any sense at all arrange a pardon for himself from Biden, on his machinations whilst in office.
Consortiumnews,
I am not a legal beagle nor a layman involved in lawyerish minutiae, but can someone PUHLEESE explain how some USA president can grant a pardon to an Australian national being held in an English prison after he has served time and payed his debt to society for a questionable crime? He is being held often in solitary confinement, without bail, without conventional access to his legal advisors, and for what? A hearing that could have been completed in a week at most barring appeal procedures? How long has this extradition fiasco been going on? I repeat—Assange has been undergoing an extradition “hearing”; he is not being tried for a crime against the blankety-blank state of England. Assange is only charged with a possible crime against the USA; he has not been arraigned, much less indicted or convicted for a crime in USA. So how can he be pardoned? The alleged charges can be dropped and all will be well and settled….but a pardon for a “crime” for which he has not even been tried in the proper court with all the subsequent appeal processes? C’mon gang; you can do better.
Assange is in prison on remand pending the extradition process. He is not serving time for a crime committed, thus he’s paid no debt to society. He has been indicted by the United States under the US Espionage Act. It is not relevant that he’s not a US citizen in a British prison. Given the array of defense witnesses, the hearing could not have been completed in one week. And a presidential pardon can be granted before conviction and even before trial. “In Ex parte Garland, the Supreme Court settled the question of preemptive pardons. The justices in that 1866 case decided that while pardons could reach only past acts, the pardon ‘may be exercised at any time after [the act’s] commission, either before legal proceedings are taken or during their pendency or after conviction and judgment.’” –Washington Post
hXXps://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-myths/five-myths-about-presidential-pardons/2018/06/06/18447f84-69ba-11e8-bf8c-f9ed2e672adf_story.html
Thanks for the info. Yet, 1) why does an extradition remand deny bail or demand confinement in a maximum security facility? 2) Why has the entire fiasco taken so long a period of time to resolve? Even with the seemingly endless delays and postponements, this still could have been resolved within a few weeks at most. 3) It appears that pre-emptive pardons can exonerate persons charged, or suspected, of murder or felony crimes without recourse to a trial by jury. Where does one draw the line? 4) I thought Assange served a 50-week sentence for some minor crime. Why has he been remanded over for such a long period of time for an alleged crime for which he has not been charged in the UK?
The entire business seems to being kicked around like a political football with zero regard to a swift trial before one’s peers. It is obvious that the DC Establishment has no taste for dragging the affair out any longer, particularly the reactionary right-wing Establishment Democrats who will have to take on the onus of conducting the trial against the will of large and well-organized national and international pro-Assange supporters, to say nothing about international precedents being set re: media reporting in the digital age. Just drop the extradition charges and be done with it.
1) the extradition remand does not deny bail and confinement to max security prison. A judge and the Ministry of Justice has. They could easily grant him bail but haven’t.
2) All legal proceedings take time and it was to Assange’s advantage that his lawyers could present such a comprehensive defense.
3) Pre-emptive pardons are not restricted to murder or felonies.
4). His time served for skipping bail is over. He is now on remand until the extradition request is decided.
The important thing is to get Assange Free as fast as possible.
A Pardon would do this without further delay.