Joe Kent Reveals Disturbing Details About Being Blocked From Investigating Charlie Kirk's Murder
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Joe Kent Reveals Disturbing Details About Being Blocked From Investigating Charlie Kirk's Murder
Joe Kent, former head of the National Counterterrorism Center, shares shocking revelations about his investigation into Charlie Kirk's assassination. Kent describes how the FBI and DOJ blocked his team from pursuing leads related to potential foreign ties to Kirk's murder, despite evidence of people posting online with prior knowledge of the attack. Kent also discusses the unanswered questions surrounding the Butler assassination attempt on President Trump and questions why a figure so central to the MAGA movement and opposed to war with Iran hasn't received a thorough investigation. Kent walked through the West Wing with Kirk weeks before his death, when Kirk urged him to stop a war with Iran.
The conversation begins with a fundamental question: What kind of pressure does it take to make a president who campaigned against something for 10 years suddenly do exactly that thing? According to Kent, there are two potential explanations. The first involves the media echo chamber, donors, and the way Israeli interests shape information flow. The second possibility, Kent admits, is much darker.
Kent points to a series of troubling events that remain shrouded in mystery. The Butler assassination attempt on President Trump still has unanswered questions. There's documented evidence of Asaf Merchant, recruited by Iranians to come to America to recruit proxies to kill President Trump. The FBI placed a confidential human source on Merchant, and all of this is now public information. Merchant was arrested, and then two days later, a sniper took a shot at President Trump.
The confidential human source and Merchant had discussed potentially killing the president with a sniper rifle. Yet after Merchant's arrest, the Butler incident occurred, and according to the official narrative, Thomas Crooks remains an enigma. Authorities claimed they couldn't access his devices, or if they did, found nothing there. No more questions are allowed about Thomas Crooks. The DHS Inspector General is currently being blocked from investigating Butler as well, which has been reported in the media.
Meanwhile, investigative journalists found that Crooks did have an online persona and footprint, and he was talking to people. So why isn't this being investigated? This was an attempted murder of a presidential candidate, followed by another assassination attempt and multiple public breaches of President Trump's security over the past year.
Charlie Kirk's Final Words in the West Wing
Then Charlie Kirk was killed publicly in a horrific way, and investigators are not being allowed to look into it properly. Charlie Kirk was one of President Trump's closest advisers and advocated heavily against a war with Iran. He was in the Oval Office in the leadup to the 12-day war.
Kent reveals that he wasn't particularly close with Kirk, though Kirk was very gracious and supportive when Kent was running for Congress. The last time Kent saw Kirk alive was in June in the West Wing stairway. Kent said hello, and Kirk looked him in the eye and said very loudly—in the small, tight space of the West Wing—"Joe, stop us from getting into a war with Iran." Kirk was single-minded about this message. He then walked off, heading toward the Oval Office.
When one of President Trump's closest advisers who vocally advocated against going to war with Iran and for rethinking the relationship with Israel is suddenly publicly assassinated, and investigators are not allowed to ask questions about it, that's a data point that needs examination.
Being Blocked From Investigating Kirk's Murder
Kent clarifies what he means by "not allowed to ask questions." The individual accused of killing Kirk—Robinson—has been labeled a lone gunman, and maybe he is. But the investigation that Kent was part of, which included the National Counterterrorism Center, was stopped from continuing their work. The FBI claims they halted the investigation because they wanted to turn everything over to Utah State Authorities since everything is going to trial and it's very sensitive.
However, there was still significant work to do that Kent can't fully detail. There was linkage to investigate that needed to be run down. Kent is not making definitive conclusions or claiming he knows exactly what happened. He's simply saying there are unanswered questions. The text messages that have been made public show that Kirk was under tremendous pressure from pro-Israel donors. Kirk was known to be advocating to President Trump against the war with Iran. And at the end of the 12-day war, at the end of Midnight Hammer, everyone knew the Israelis would come back and ask for another war.
There are numerous data points between Butler, the assassination attempts against President Trump, the breaches of his security, and what happened to Kirk that paint a concerning picture.
The National Counterterrorism Center's Mandate
The National Counterterrorism Center's mandate is to investigate any potential foreign ties to see if there are foreign connections to incidents like Kirk's murder. If they don't find foreign ties, they back off. Kent is careful not to reveal too much detail, but he states clearly that there was more to investigate. He believes there was reason to investigate potential foreign ties to Kirk's murder and was told by the FBI and DOJ to stop. He was told the investigation was done, and his access to information was cut off.
Kent emphasizes that he's not necessarily saying he believes there are 100% foreign ties. What he's saying is that there were data points that needed investigation. Anyone who has looked at any police investigation knows you get a hundred leads, you run them down, and 99 don't mean anything. But his team still had many more leads to run down pertaining to some kind of foreign nexus, and they were stopped from investigating.
How the Bureaucracy Works to Kill Investigations
Kent explains how the bureaucracy can kill investigations through process. Initially, his team was cut off pretty early from being able to access files and send people to investigate. They sent people out initially to work in the task force, but after the crisis period in the first week or so, that dispersed. Kent's team was basically told that the FBI would get back to them if they found any kind of foreign ties they wanted the NCTC to look into.
Meanwhile, Kent's team had already dug up a decent amount of leads. Again, not saying they had anything concrete, but they found more work needed to be done to say they had completed their due diligence. They were then told they needed to stop and couldn't work on the case anymore. Kent had a bureaucratic dispute about it. Eventually, they were allowed to continue investigating, but then in very short order, all the requests they would make—requests that normally different parts of the interagency with the FBI being on point would facilitate through data sharing—were never met. In Kent's opinion, no honest effort was given to fulfill those requests.
These were basic information requests that any competent police service, which Kent believes Utah has, and the FBI would have access to, which would help them run down leads to either confirm or deny some kind of foreign activity. His team was cut off from that access. The agencies never officially came back and said "you can't look at this anymore." All of the requests just continued to die on the vine with the various agencies needed to fulfill those requests.
Prior Knowledge Posted Online
Kent points out something particularly disturbing: people were posting online with prior knowledge of what was about to happen to Kirk. Much of the justification for stopping the NCTC from investigating hung on the idea that they had the guy, his fingerprints were on the gun, they had video of him jumping off the roof—it was a slam dunk case.
But even if it is a slam dunk case that Robinson took the shot, what about all the people who had prior knowledge? What about the basic investigative questions of how he got there? This isn't rocket science. Anyone with common sense would know to ask these questions. But basically, once they caught Robinson and his fingerprints were on the gun, it was pencils down. Utah has the rest of it. There's nothing else to see here.
Kent felt like he was in crazy town, saying they had all these different leads they needed to run down. The people who had prior knowledge, he believes most of them were American citizens, so that would be on the FBI to investigate. But again, without saying anything specific, there was more work for the NCTC to do on the potential of a foreign nexus. Not saying there is one, but they had more work to do and were blocked from doing it.
A Generational Figure Deserves Justice
Kent admits he's very bothered by this situation. He personally did not know Kirk well, but Charlie Kirk was a generational figure. He led a movement and was speaking to millions of young Americans who came out and voted for President Trump. He was a genuine great man, husband, and father. How can you not like Charlie Kirk?
The fact that he was murdered so publicly, and yes, there's been sympathy and his movement has grown, but there's been no actual curiosity about getting justice or figuring out what happened—that makes Kent furious. They're being blocked from investigating, and they're not allowed to ask questions anymore. They're not allowed to talk about it anymore. Kent thinks that's absolute insanity.
What does it mean that there are people and entities out there that don't want investigators looking into this? Kent is sure they're preparing the response right now, saying it's because they don't want to screw up the Robinson trial. But if the Robinson trial is so slam dunk, then don't worry about it. Robinson's fingerprints are on the rifle. But people were publicly posting they had prior knowledge of Kirk's murder. And Kent is stating clearly that as someone involved in the investigation, there were more stones to overturn. Every time they asked, they were blocked. Then information was leaked to the New York Times, making it seem like Kent's team was crazy and needed to be thrown out of the room.
It's incredibly frustrating that there's not more attention paid to finding the truth, especially considering how pivotal Kirk was to the MAGA movement and to President Trump. There hasn't been a more concerted effort to find truth and justice.
Hope for the Future
Kent prays there will be justice. He hopes his speaking out will help, though he knows he and the interviewer will probably take some flak for it. Kent has really tried not to say anything about this situation because he doesn't know all the answers. But he wants them to be found because he believes in justice and because he cares about what happened to Charlie Kirk.
Kent acknowledges that everything he has said may be dismissed as crazy or evil, but he challenges anyone to level a legitimate attack on the words he's spoken. He knows that won't stop people from trying.
