London (CNN) A lawyer for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has said that a former US congressman offered him a pardon on behalf of US President Donald Trump, in exchange for denying Russian involvement in the Democratic National Committee email leak. The White House and the congressman have strongly denied Trump's involvement in the matter.

Lawyer Edward Fitzgerald told a court on Wednesday that a witness statement application claimed that then-California representative Dana Rohrabacher went to visit Assange at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London on the instruction of the "President."

According to the statement described by Fitzgerald, Rohrabacher's mission was to offer Assange a US pardon, if he would "play ball" by saying the Russians had nothing to do with the leak -- an assertion Assange had previously made.

The comments were made at the Westminster Magistrates' Court in London during a case management hearing on the US' request to have Assange extradited on charges under the Espionage Act. Judge Vanessa Baraitser said the application presented by Fitzgerald was admissible.

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