Tucker Carlson posted a photo on social media Thursday seemingly teasing his next big interview — this time with fugitive journalist Julian Assange, who is currently being held in a London prison.
“Visiting Julian Assange at Belmarsh Prison this morning,” the caption read. The photo showed Carlson walking through what is presumably a prison parking lot.
Visiting Julian Assange at Belmarsh Prison this morning pic.twitter.com/5XR51QTZgy
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) November 2, 2023
Assange has been fighting extradition to the U.S., where he is wanted on charges that include receiving, possessing and communicating classified information to the public under the Espionage Act. Assange published classified military documents on his Wikileaks site.
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He faces up to 175 years in prison if convicted, according to Fox News.
Carlson interviewed Assange’s father, John Shipton, and brother, Gabriel Shipton, in March — not long before Carlson was abruptly fired from Fox.
At that time, Carlson described Assange’s alleged crimes as “reporting … accurate information that Western leaders wanted to keep hidden because it embarrassed them.”
The interview with Assange’s family was to promote their documentary “Ithaca,” in which the fugitive’s father urged the U.S. Department of Justice to drop its charges against him.
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Additional calls to drop the charges against Assange have come from both sides of the aisle in Congress, most recently in the form of a letter circulated last week by GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democratic Rep. James McGovern of Massachusetts.
In the letter, the two asked their fellow House members to join a bipartisan effort to “strongly encourage the Biden administration to withdraw the U.S. extradition request currently pending against Australian publisher Julian Assange and halt all prosecutorial proceedings against him as soon as possible,” Fox reported.
The effort by Massie and McGovern to clear Assange’s name has been just one of several by U.S. officials and other governments.
Assange’s case was expected to be brought up during a visit to Washington last week by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has “repeatedly called on the U.S. in recent months to end the prosecution of Assange,” according to Fox. An Australian delegation discussed the matter with the DOJ.
Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib also spearheaded an effort in April to ask the DOJ to drop the prosecution.
The DOJ filed charges in 2010 after Assange published documents leaked by U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning detailing alleged war crimes committed by the U.S. in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay.
“The materials also exposed instances of the CIA allegedly engaging in torture and rendition” and “the U.S. military gunning down civilians in Iraq, including two Reuters journalists,” Fox reported.
