Alt-right figure who set up Assange meeting refuses to cooperate with Senate intel probe

‘Alt-right’ figure , Charles C. Johnson, set up Assange meeting refuses to cooperate with Senate intel probe


https://www.yahoo.com/news/alt-right-figure-set-assange-meeting-refuses-cooperate-senate-intel-probe-172020121.html

Michael IsikoffChief Investigative Correspondent


,Yahoo News•August 18, 2017

Charles C. Johnson with Rep. Dana Rohrbacher, R.-Calif. (Photo: Charles C. Johnson/Facebook)

A controversial “alt-right” journalist and provocateur who met with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in London this week says he is refusing to turn over documents and emails requested by the Senate Intelligence Committee about any contacts he has had with Russian agents, telling Yahoo News he has no intention of cooperating with the panel’s investigation.

“I’m absolutely not” going to cooperate with the committee, Charles C. Johnson said in an interview after returning from London, where he had set up a meeting this week between Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., and Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy.

“They’re going to have to subpoena me and then they’ll be sorely disappointed,” he added. Johnson said his lawyer would raise journalistic “privilege” issues to resist turning over any communications he might have had with Russian nationals or agents. The committee had requested the material in a July 27 letter it sent him, asking that the documents by turned over by Aug. 10. Johnson has since posted the letter on a website he runs, GotNews.

Johnson’s stand would appear to make him the first figure in the Russia investigation to take such a publicly defiant position — refusing to cooperate in any way with the committee probe. Even prospective witnesses who have repeatedly derided the Russia investigations, such as longtime Donald Trump adviser Roger Stone, have said they will comply with requests from the Senate and House intelligence committees (although Stone in particular has been dodgy about whether he will respond to questions about the identity of a “backchannel” figure who tipped him off to material Assange was about to publish.) Another key figure, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, initially refused to respond to a committee request and requested immunity, but later turned over people sought by the panel. A spokeswoman for committee chair, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., declined any comment about Johnson.

Johnson is an intriguing figure to committee investigators for multiple reasons: He is an inflammatory “alt-right” journalist and entrepreneur who was banned from Twitter two years ago for appearing to threaten a Black Lives Matter activist. ..........................