The thread title complies with the DP rules for posting items from media sources and those rules require a verbatim use of the original item's headline.
You should also keep in mind that the main purpose of a "headline" is MARKETING and is not journalism.
PS - The original headline indicated that 'offered Julian Assange a pardon if he denied Russia link to hack' was something that someone said, and the body of the article contained “on instructions from the president, he was offering a pardon or some other way out, if Mr Assange … said Russia had nothing to do with the DNC [Democratic National Committee] leaks.” which WAS a quote of something that was alleged to have been said.
I suppose that you would have had absolutely no qualms about accepting the story if the headline had read
Reporter says that Assange's lawyer says that another lawyer says that they were present and heard Roharbach say that he had heard Donald Trump say that he would grant Mr. Assange a pardon if Mr. Assange would say that the Russians were not involved in hacking the DNC computers which Mr. Assange has absolutely no way of knowing since he didn't actually witness the hacking and
would have to be relying on what someone else told him they had been told.
or something like that.