Far-right commentator Candace Owens has been accused of spreading conspiracy theories about the killing of MAGA activist Charlie Kirk since his public murder on a Utah college campus in September. One journalist recently appeared to get her to admit on camera that her claims are not based in fact.

Owens has repeatedly stated on her podcast that Kirk — who founded conservative group Turning Point USA (TPUSA) — was rethinking his previous staunch support of Israel in the weeks leading up to his death. She alleged that Kirk had a dust-up with pro-Israel billionaire donor Bill Ackman at a retreat he hosted in the Hamptons over Kirk's refusal to disinvite former Fox News host Tucker Carlson to a TPUSA event, given Carlson's reputation as one of the loudest conservative critics of Israel and his friendliness toward anti-semitic voices like Nick Fuentes. (Ackman has denied any confrontation with Kirk over Israel.)

Owens also published text messages from Kirk (which were later confirmed by TPUSA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet) in which he stated that his group lost a $2 million donation due to his refusal to disinvite Carlson. Bulwark reporter Will Sommer said in October that "there's kind of this implication [from Owens] that Israel committed the assassination."

In an interview released Friday, CNN reporter Elle Reeve spoke with Owens about her claims that alleged killer Tyler Robinson didn't act alone. Owens acknowledged that while Robinson may have been "involved" in the shooting, there were "financial reports" that were going to be released in the coming weeks that would prove her claims. When Reeve pressed Owens on how she knows Robinson didn't act alone, Owens pointed to messages between Robinson and his roommate that she claimed were manufactured by the FBI "that had no time stamp and were written like they speaking in 1822."

Elle pressed Owens on whether she had definitive proof the messages were concocted by the FBI, and reminded her that such a claim could be "easily proven." When Owens insisted that there was no timestamp on the messages and that messaging platform Discord said they had no record of the exchange, Reeve reminded her that the conversation wasn't on Discord, but conducted via text message.

"I actually did not read that they were text messages," Owens conceded.

The conservative influencer maintained that federal agents typed up the messages themselves and attributed them to Robinson and his roommate. When Reeve asked her if she had FBI agents confirming that the messages were fake, Owens said, "I have leaks."

"But has anyone said to you, even off the record, like, 'yeah, we faked these,'" Reeve pressed.

"I have very strong sources everywhere, on both sides," Owens said.

"Well, I look forward to seeing evidence of that," Reeve said.

Owens then scoffed at whether "mainstream media" would broadcast evidence that the messages were leaked if they had definitive proof. Reeve gave Owens the opportunity to share any confirmation with her, saying, "That would be a hot story!"

"If the FBI, if I had a source telling me, like, if I had proof that the FBI faked those messages, that would be an enormous story," Reeve said.

"Yeah, I kind of feel like we live in a post-Epstein world, and we know how stories get shut down," Owens said.

Watch the exchange below:

A Trump-appointed federal judge dealt another blow to the president on Friday night by formally barring him from deploying National Guard troops in Portland, Oregon, to put down protests at the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.

According to Oregon Public Broadcasting, U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut "acknowledged 'violent protests did occur in June,' but law enforcement were able to address them. 'Since that brief span of a few days in June, the protests outside the Portland ICE facility have been predominately peaceful, with only isolated and sporadic instances of relatively low-level violence, largely between protesters and counter-protesters,' the judge wrote in her 106-page order, 'this Court concludes that even giving great deference to the President’s determination, the President did not have a lawful basis to federalize the National Guard.'"

Immergut has ruled against President Donald Trump multiple times on this issue.

Initially, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit — also dominated by Trump appointees — stayed Immergut's decision, but the Ninth Circuit agreed to review the case en banc, vacating that stay for the time being.

This comes as Trump has moved to deploy federal forces around the country, both to enact mass immigration raids and to keep order amid protests rising up against them.

In addition to Portland, Chicago has become a massive focal point of the administration's enforcement efforts, leading to ongoing clashes with federal agents, state officials, and courts.

Federal prosecutors in Florida have begun targeting former key intelligence officials as part of a Justice Department investigation into Russian interference in Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, sources told CNN.

Former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper are among those expected to receive subpoenas, along with ex-FBI officials Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, reports say.

CNN’s Katelyn Polantz told Erin Burnett Friday night that the new action from Trump’s Department of Justice “is not done yet” and that “dozens of subpoenas” are going out to officials connected to the 2017 intelligence community assessment that summarized Russian efforts to interfere in the election and the Trump campaign’s contacts. Investigators are demanding documents from July 2016 to February 2017, including emails, texts and computer files, the network reported.

But, as Polantz noted: “There's some real head scratchers around this right now.”

“First of all, what they're asking for are very old records, federal criminal cases only usually are charged in a five-year window. This is stuff from almost 10 years ago,” she said.

The subpoenas were sent out from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida, which has jurisdiction over Mar-a-Lago. While CNN added that while the link between this probe and the original FBI investigation, known as “Crossfire Hurricane,” is not fully clear, Trump allies have argued the Justice Department can revisit the earlier probe as part of broader inquiries into Trump’s campaign, transition and subsequent actions, including the classified documents investigation.

The effort marks the latest chapter in nearly a decade of legal scrutiny surrounding Trump’s 2016 campaign.