Trump considers pardoning Assange

US president hopeful Donald Trump will seriously consider giving Julian Assange a pardon if he is elected.

Mr Trump made the announcement during an interview with podcaster Tim Pool before he gave a speech at the Libertarian National Convention.

“We’re going to give it very serious consideration,” Mr Trump said.

Last month, President Joe Biden also said his administration was considering a request from Australia to end Mr Assange’s case.

“We’re considering it,” he said to reporters outside the White House.

Mr Assange, 52, is facing extradition to the US over 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse, winning a bid earlier this month to appeal his extradition in the UK’s High Court.

The charges relate to Mr Assange’s website WikiLeaks, which released a series of classified US military and diplomatic files in 2010 about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

US prosecutors said the unauthorised release of the documents had endangered the lives of military personnel.

The WikiLeaks founder was granted permission to appeal the decision by the UK court if the Biden administration could not provide the court with a string of assurances.

These included that Mr Assange be permitted to rely on the first amendment, that he would not be prejudiced at a trial, that he was afforded the same free speech protections as a US citizen and that he would not face the death penalty.

Assange spent seven years in exile at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London and has been in a high-security prison in the UK for five years.

If he is extradited to the US he faces 175 years in prison.