'We're going down rabbit holes': Joy Reid panel mocks GOPer's plan to use Assange as a Trump character witness

An AM Joy panel discussing President Donald Trump's deepening Russia investigation problems switched gears to discuss plans by one Republican to use help from Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to help the president out.

According to host Joy Reid, "Julian Assange, who we know was the conduit for the stolen DNC hacked e-mails to get to the public via Wikileaks. Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican congressman from California met with Julian Assange, went with this right-wing blogger to meet with him."

"Now he claims he wants to have a private meeting with Donald Trump to tell him of Julian Assange's self-defense claiming the information did not come from Russia," she continued. "What do you make of this talk that he is floating, that Donald Trump should pardon Julian Assange and get whatever information he has to offer?"

Security analyst Malcolm Nance described the whole notion as bizarre.

"Assange is a foreign national living in a foreign embassy who we haven't indicted for any crimes in the United States -- what is he going to pardon him on, you know, his attempted rape in Norway?" Nance began before noting that House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) has already commented on Rohrabacher's connections to Russia.

"I've met Congressman Rohrabacher, I have no animosity towards hi he sounds like a nice guy served the country well in the time in the military," he continued. "But for him to go to London and meet with Julian Assange, who Mike Pompeo, the director of the CIA who referred to his agency, Wikileaks, as a non-state intelligence agency -- we are now going down rabbit holes to where we may have an active campaign to cover up all the players in this game in a very haphazard amateurish fashion."

"This is only going to expand the scope of the investigation of the Mueller team and just going to bring more pain to the White House," he concluded.

Watch the video below via MSNBC: