Speaking to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) in the same hearing on FBI oversight in which he roasted Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), FBI Director Kash Patel indicated that there could have been a sprawling network of individuals who collectively conspired to assassinate TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk.
As background, the day before the hearing, during an appearance on Fox News, the FBI Director noted that over 20 individuals may have participated in an online chat on a platform called Discord, the same chat in which alleged shooter Tyler Robinson, 22, admitted to killing Kirk. Commenting further on that, Patel indicated that the FBI is hard at work investigating those nearly two-dozen other individuals to determine if a conspiracy was made to kill Kirk.
For reference, in the message in Discord in which he allegedly confessed to the killing, Robinson allegedly said to the twenty or so other individuals, according to the Washington Post, “Hey guys, I have bad news for you all. It was me at [Utah Valley University] yesterday. im sorry for all of this.”
During the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Hawley pressed Patel on that matter and asked what the FBI is doing about it, leading to Patel saying that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and local law enforcement partners are hard at work “investigating anyone and everyone involved in that Discord chat.”
Explaining what is going into that, Patel told Sen. Hawley that the FBI is moving as quckly as it can while still being careful so that evidence can be used in a trial, saying, “So what we’re doing, we’ve already done is a sort of legal process, not just on Discord, so that the information we gathered is sustained and held in an evidentiary posture that we could use in prosecution, should it be decided to do so. And we’re also going to be investigating anyone and everyone involved in that Discord Chat.”
Further, Patel explained in his testimony that the FBI is looking to figure out what was going on with the suspect regarding his familial network and acquaintances, saying, “In terms of what we do [from] an interrogation perspective, we go and reach out to the family and community immediately, and we’ve conducted those investigations and interrogations with local law enforcement.”
Explaining how that connects to the case at large and the shooter’s ideology, which could help explain who else was involved here, Patel said, “And we’re continuing to do that, because those closest to the suspect are going to hopefully know the most about the suspect and his beliefs and his ideology.”
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Additionally, commenting on the potentially large conspiracy at issue here, Patel said, “We’re also going to be investigating anyone and everyone involved in that Discord chat.” Responding, Sen. Hawley pressed him on the size of that network, asking if it was “as many as 20” users. Patel replied, “It’s a lot more than that. We’re running them all down.”
Watch him here: