State and federal prosecutors are squabbling after President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is reportedly considering pursuing “highly unusual” federal charges against the suspected killer of Charlie Kirk, NBC News reported Saturday.
Kirk was assassinated in September while speaking at an event at Utah University, and his suspected killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was arrested two days later. While Robinson already faces multiple state charges, including aggravated murder, the DOJ is now considering pursuing federal charges and painting the murder as an “anti-Christian hate crime.”
Kirk had regularly spouted anti-transgender rhetoric, once labeling “the transgender thing happening in America right now” as a “throbbing middle finger to God.” Law enforcement has published alleged text messages of Robinson that suggest he targeted Kirk over his “hateful” rhetoric, and have also said that Robinson’s partner was transgender.
Labeling Kirk’s killing as an “anti-Christian hate crime,” however, was apparently a bridge too far for some prosecutors, with insiders telling NBC News that the novel legal theory likely wouldn’t stick.
“They are trying to shove a square peg into a round hole,” said an insider familiar with the DOJ’s investigation, speaking with NBC News under the condition of anonymity.
Three additional insiders familiar with the investigation told NBC News that “career prosecutors” have pushed back against the DOJ’s consideration, having argued that Kirk’s killing “doesn’t appear to fall under any federal statutes.”