Supporters of Julian Assange protest outside a court in London on May 1, 2019. -

Matt Dunham / AP / SIPA

  • Julian Assange, who risks prison in the United States, soon "forgiven" by Donald Trump?

    This is what Pastor Mark Burns said on Twitter.

  • The latter then retracted.

  • The United States has filed an extradition request for the founder of Wikileaks, who is imprisoned in Britain.

A tweet that caused confusion.

Pastor Mark Burns, a staunch supporter of Donald Trump, said Monday on Twitter that the US president would “forgive” Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, before retracting.

Less than two hours after his first tweet, the Protestant priest asked to "ignore" his previous message.

"Wrong source," he said.

On Tuesday, his deceptive tweet was still live and had a much larger audience than his rectifying tweet.

In the meantime, his claim has been echoed by several high-audience Twitter accounts.

"I highly hope this is true," wrote Edouard Snowden, the whistleblower who revealed the NSA's mass eavesdropping, before deleting his tweet.

“The charge against Assange is based on a legal theory that would criminalize the work of any journalist, both in this country [the United States] and abroad,” he added.

Donald Trump, for his part, did not react.

In February, the White House denied that the president had offered his pardon to Julian Assange if he cleared Russia in the case of the Democratic Party leaks in 2016.

Assange risks extradition to the United States

Julian Assange is currently imprisoned in a high security prison in south London, awaiting trial for extradition to the United States.

The judgment is due at first instance on January 4.

The American authorities accuse the founder of Wikileaks of having violated the “Espionage Act”.

They accuse him of endangering lives by the publication, in 2010, of hundreds of thousands of diplomatic documents and confidential documents.

Julian Assange and Wikileaks have a conflicting relationship with Donald Trump.

The organization initially opposed the businessman, before supporting him in 2016.

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Extradition of Julian Assange: British justice will render its decision on January 4

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