Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., favors granting Julian Assange immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on what he knows about "Russiagate," according to published reports.
The libertarian-leaning senator (pictured at left) told a reporter,
“I think that he should be given immunity from prosecution in exchange for coming to the United States and testifying,” Paul said. “I think he’s been someone who has released a lot of information, and you can debate whether or not any of that has caused harm, but I think really he has information that is probably pertinent to the hacking of the Democratic emails that would be nice to hear.”
In August, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to Assange in care of the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he was living in asylum. The letter requests that Assange consent to a “closed interview with bipartisan Committee staff at a mutually agreeable time and location.”
Burr was hoping to find out whether Assange had any pertinent information related to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Assange has denied that WikiLeaks received any data from a state actor. He has been accused by officials of being a Russian agent, but no evidence to that effect has been presented, according to William Binney, a onetime National Security Agency whistleblower and expert on intelligence technology. Binney expressed grave doubt as to the claims against Assange when interviewed by Epoch Times, a widely distributed anti-Chinese communist newspaper.
Assange is being held in a terrorist lockup in Britain on a U.S. cyber-terrorism charge after his "overkill" arrest by British police at Ecuador's London embassy.
Press freedom advocates are likely to point out that the making of such a deal tends to give government an implicit oversight role in what free persons can publish, in direct conflict with the First Amendment.
Rand Paul is the son of Ron Paul, a libertarian activist and retired lawmaker from Texas, who is denouncing Assange's arrest as a power play by the thought police.
Sources: Gateway Pundit, The New American.
The libertarian-leaning senator (pictured at left) told a reporter,
“I think that he should be given immunity from prosecution in exchange for coming to the United States and testifying,” Paul said. “I think he’s been someone who has released a lot of information, and you can debate whether or not any of that has caused harm, but I think really he has information that is probably pertinent to the hacking of the Democratic emails that would be nice to hear.”
In August, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to Assange in care of the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he was living in asylum. The letter requests that Assange consent to a “closed interview with bipartisan Committee staff at a mutually agreeable time and location.”
Burr was hoping to find out whether Assange had any pertinent information related to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Assange has denied that WikiLeaks received any data from a state actor. He has been accused by officials of being a Russian agent, but no evidence to that effect has been presented, according to William Binney, a onetime National Security Agency whistleblower and expert on intelligence technology. Binney expressed grave doubt as to the claims against Assange when interviewed by Epoch Times, a widely distributed anti-Chinese communist newspaper.
Assange is being held in a terrorist lockup in Britain on a U.S. cyber-terrorism charge after his "overkill" arrest by British police at Ecuador's London embassy.
Press freedom advocates are likely to point out that the making of such a deal tends to give government an implicit oversight role in what free persons can publish, in direct conflict with the First Amendment.
Rand Paul is the son of Ron Paul, a libertarian activist and retired lawmaker from Texas, who is denouncing Assange's arrest as a power play by the thought police.
Sources: Gateway Pundit, The New American.
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