WASHINGTON, D.C.—Film producer Gabriel Shipton gave an update about his brother, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, at the Libertarian National Convention on Friday.
During an early afternoon speech at the Washington Hilton in D.C., Shipton discussed seeing firsthand the dangers and powerful results of Wikileaks and offered an anecdote from a recent call with Assange.
Speaking to a crowd that included Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Shipton recounted how he first began to see the change that WikiLeaks could cause before the leaks connected to Chelsea Manning, whose hack into U.S. military databases exposed military and diplomatic secrets. A lighthearted moment between @RepThomasMassie and @GabrielShipton after giving a speech at #LNC about his brother Julian Assange. (Cameo from the great @DylanMAllman) pic.twitter.com/hgW3zQpmZ2
— Chris Karr (@ChrisKarr17) May 24, 2024
"I really realized the impact that WikiLeaks could have ... when they leaked the Kroll Report,” Shipton said.
He explained how the report, which was conducted by the government before being suppressed, exposed the looting of Kenya’s people at the hands of then-President Daniel Moi.
“Moi, who was a dictator in Kenya for many, many years, had been robbing the Kenyan people of hundreds of millions of dollars,” Shipton said. “Eventually, the investigation found that he defrauded the public [of] $1.3 billion that he had hidden all around the world, in different areas, different bank accounts, different offshore accounts.”
He said the exposure of the report led to change in Kenya’s government.
“Some of Julian's people that he was working with in Kenya at the time started to disappear, and were killed,” he said. “And that's when I personally realized the length that the powerful will go to hide their secrets. And the power does lay in WikiLeaks, and how the most powerful people, how scared they were of this technology, that they would go to any lengths to stop their crimes from being revealed.”
Though the UK High Court ruled earlier this week that Assange has the right to a full appeal against extradition to the U.S., the WikiLeaks founder still remains in Belmarsh prison, where he has been since April 2019.
"He's trying to keep his mind active by reading a lot. He has a typewriter,” Shipton said, adding that he has access to a phone and has visitation with his children, who are five and seven. “That's his link to the outside world ... knowing that there are people out there fighting for him.”
During a call with Assange last week, Shipton revealed that his brother told him he made a new friend in prison.
“Oh,” Shipton replied. “Tell me more, who’s your new friend?"
“Oh, it's a guy from Norway,” Assange said. “He's got one leg. He speaks 10 languages. And he's a cannibal.”
Shipton said his brother was referring to Marius Gustafson, known as the “Eunich Maker,” who was sent to jail for 22 years earlier this month.
“The headline in The Telegraph in the United Kingdom is a guy who has eaten a testicle salad,” he said. “So, these are the types of people that Julian is in prison with — people who eat testicles in salads.”
“He's got this dark sense of like gallows humor,” he added. “I think people call it you know, when you're … I think the human spirit, we have the ability to keep our sense of humor, even … when we're going through all these types of hardship.”
He mentioned that his brother had never had so much as a traffic fine, calling him “a gentle genius.”
“Yet he's in prison with the most hardcore prisoners in the United Kingdom,” Shipton said.
“[But] it's not all doom and gloom,” he continued. “Julian’s situation is really, really awful. And, you know, his health is deteriorating. But he's hanging in there. And I think … there's never been as much support as there has been at this moment. … The based thing to do is to support Julian Assange's freedom these days. And so seeing that evolve over the years is really, really heartening and gives us a lot of hope that eventually, Julian will be freed.”
He went on to thank the Libertarian community for their longstanding support: “I know you guys have been on his side from day one, [which] makes a massive difference.”
Shipton noted President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice is considering a plea deal for Assange and the independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised to pardon the WikiLeaks founder on day one.
“We're still waiting on Trump,” he added. “Trump hasn't said anything yet. ... A commitment from him will be good as well.”
