London, February 21 (RHC)-- Lawyers for Julian Assange told a London court that U.S. President Donald Trump offered the WikiLeaks founder a presidential pardon if he agreed to publicly state that Russia was not behind the leak of Democratic Party emails ahead of the 2016 election.

The explosive allegation came as part of a legal filing by Assange’s lawyers, who are seeking to block Assange’s extradition to the U.S., where he faces up to 175 years in prison.  

According to the lawyers, then-Congressmember Dana Rohrabacher visited Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2017, claiming he had instructions from the president to make a deal for a pardon.  Rohrabacher has since denied the allegation, saying he was on a personal “fact-finding mission.”