Donald Trump has revealed he will seriously consider pardoning Julian Assange for breaking national security laws if he is elected in November.
The 52-year-old Australian is in a UK prison and has been granted permission to , where he would face trial on espionage charges.
Trump made the comment in an interview with right-wing American commentator Tim Pool, before giving a speech at the Libertarian National Convention.
“Well, I’m going to talk about that today, and we’re going to give it very serious consideration,” he said in response to a question about pardoning Assange.
“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 did not name Assange in the subsequent speech, but did reveal he would create a special task force to review cases “of every political prisoner who’s been unjustly persecuted by the Biden administration”.
However, Assange’s extradition order was granted in 2019, under the Trump administration.
Assange is wanted by Washington for publishing hundreds of thousands of secret US documents from 2010 as head of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.
Several of these documents revealed alleged war crimes committed by US military personnel in Iraq.
If extradited, Assange faces a sentence of 175 years in prison.
Where does President Joe Biden stand on the issue?
Last month, US President Joe Biden said he was considering a February request from Australia to
While Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the comments were “encouraging”, there has been no further action from the White House or the Department of Justice.
There is growing support from both Republican and Democratic US politicians for the charges to be pardoned.
With additional reporting by AFP
Source Agencies
