FBI Director Kash Patel vowed to investigate online conspiracy theories about right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk's assassination, but was bothered that the head of the National Counterterrorism Center had gone through bureau files chasing down leads of his own, according to a new report.
Patel and other senior FBI officials felt that Joe Kent, the director of the counterterrorism center, had overstepped his authority and possibly interfered with their investigation by examining FBI files to discover if foreign or domestic groups were linked to the 31-year-old Kirk’s fatal shooting last month during a campus event in Utah, reported the New York Times.
"Mr. Patel was troubled that Mr. Kent had gone through F.B.I. material related to the case, according to the people knowledgeable on the matter," the Times reported. "Mr. Kent’s efforts were a topic at a White House meeting that included Mr. Patel, Mr. Kent and his direct superior, [Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence]. Top Justice Department officials, Vice President JD Vance and the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, were also there, according to several of the people who spoke to [the newspaper] about the matter."
The FBI director was also concerned that Kent's efforts would potentially interfere with the prosecution of suspect Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old Utah man accused of shooting Kirk from a roof at Utah Valley University.
"While Mr. Robinson is currently facing only state charges, some administration officials were concerned that Mr. Kent’s efforts could provide fodder to defense lawyers, who could use the notion that more than one person was involved in Mr. Kirk’s killing to raise reasonable doubt in the minds of jurors, said those aware of the matter," the Times reported.
White House officials have called for broad investigations of left-leaning groups and donors in response to Kirk's killing, as some of President Donald Trump's outside allies have speculated without evidence that his murder is part of a wide-ranging plot. Reports have actually linked Robinson to extremely conservative beliefs.
"Mr. Kent told administration officials that a lower-level F.B.I. official had granted him access to the agency’s files, which Mr. Patel was said not to be aware of," sources told the Times.
"Multiple people said tensions over Mr. Kent’s work had persisted for some time and were part of a broader set of issues between Ms. Gabbard’s office and other administration agencies," the report added. "The meeting that Mr. Kent attended at the White House was one of two intended to ameliorate tensions between the F.B.I. and Ms. Gabbard’s office, the people briefed on the matter said. The earlier one, which focused on multiple issues including the killing of Mr. Kirk, was so tense that little was accomplished, they added."
