Mark Gorton, founding father of LimeWire, a peer-to-peer file sharing client for the Java platform, sits for a photograph at the corporate’s Latest York offices.
Ramin Talaie | Historical corbis | Getty Images
The Wall Street veteran told CNBC that he helps fund Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccine group. and have become a casual advisor to the organization.
Mark Gorton, founder and president of Tower Research Capital, a high-frequency trading company, said he has donated $1 million to an anti-vaccine nonprofit called Kid’s Health Defense since 2021.
Kennedy, longtime critic of vaccines and the son of the late U.S. Senator and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, founded Kid’s Health Defense. The younger Kennedy also served as chairman of the group’s board of directors before starting his presidential run as a Democrat in April.
While President Joe Biden is the clear favorite to win the Democratic nomination in 2024, Kennedy has garnered surprising support, with a recent Fox News poll showing 19% of major Democratic voters examined would support him within the primaries.
Polls also show that in any case, Kennedy’s rise in influence coincides with an increase in vaccine skepticism scientific evidence that the arrows are secure. Kennedy gained the support of some longtime political players, including former Democratic representative Dennis Kuciniczwho runs the campaign. Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, was reportedly photographed with Kennedy in 2021, in accordance with ABC news.
In the course of the nearly 90-minute interview at Cafe Fiorello in Latest York City, Gorton said that he supports Kennedy’s presidential campaign and has met him over and over since he donated to Kid’s Health Defense.
“I like him very much. He’s an excellent smart guy. Again, he’s not likely a politician. He’s a corruption fighter,” said Gorton, adding that he has Kennedy’s mobile phone number.
When asked about Gorton’s donation, a Kid’s Health Defense spokeswoman said in an email: “CHD donor information is confidential and only provided to the IRS in accordance with their Rules and Regulations“.
A spokesman for the Kennedy campaign didn’t reply to requests for comment prior to publication.
Press Association reported that the Kid’s Health Defense played a key role in pushing back the Covid vaccines and helped raise Kennedy’s profile. The non-profit’s latest publicly available tax filings show it raised just over $6 million in 2020, the yr the Covid-19 pandemic began, greater than double the quantity the yr before.
The organization sent CNBC its 2021 tax filings, which to point out the group raised just over $15 million that yr. It entered 2022 with over $11 million in assets. The documents don’t mention the group’s donors.
Along with the donation, Gorton said he spoke to nonprofit staff via Zoom calls and advised the group on messaging strategies. “I used to be principally working with them to attempt to develop a method to get to the core of the beast, which is the pharmaceutical industry,” he said.
Federal Election Commission records show that Gorton donated $500,000 last yr to super PAC, which was then called People Pharma’s Movement and was run by Other Kennedy allies. Based on FEC records, this PAC was renamed American Values 2024 and spent over $200,000 on print ads in support of Kennedy’s candidacy.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. broadcasts his candidacy for President of the US in a speech at Boston Park Plaza, April 19, 2023.
David L. Ryan | Boston Globe | Getty Images
Gorton said he currently has no plans to donate to PAC this cycle. “I do not think it’s super leverage for me. Now that I’m supporting Bobby Kennedy, you are within the realm of billion-dollar presidential races, and I do not think I could make any difference on that scale,” Gorton said.
Kennedy linked vaccines to autism. It was exposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Gordon, by his Sub-Stand, published its own approach to Covid vaccines. Like Kennedy, he questions the credibility of those federal and global medical agencies.
Gorton, who also founded LimeWire, a peer-to-peer online content creator, dabbled in other conspiracy theories.
Gawker reported in 2014, Gorton wrote essays presenting various conspiracies, including the concept former President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 in a “full-scale coup”. President Kennedy was the uncle of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who pushed similar conspiracy that the Central Intelligence Agency was behind the assassination.
The CIA continues to disclaim involvement within the bombing.
Gorton told CNBC that he still stands by most of what he wrote in these essays.