The Daily Populous Thursday March 19th, 2026 evening edition
Authored by washingtonexaminer.com and submitted by EssoEssex

Former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent said he and his team were blocked from continuing to investigate possible leads tied to the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, alleging federal agencies told them to halt their work despite unsolved questions.

Speaking on the Tucker Carlson Show following his resignation from the NCC, Kent said his office initially pursued leads related to possible foreign connections in the case, which fell within its mandate. But he said those efforts were curtailed.

“We were then told that, ‘Hey, you guys need to stop. You can’t work on this anymore,” Kent said.

Kirk, a prominent conservative figure and ally of President Donald Trump, was killed last September in a high-profile assassination that authorities have described as the act of a lone gunman on Utah Valley University’s campus. Kent said investigators were told to defer to state authorities in Utah and that federal agencies limited further inquiry.

“The FBI will say that they stopped that because they wanted to … turn everything over to the Utah State authorities,” Kent said, adding that officials characterized the case as a “slam dunk case.”

Kent said his team identified additional leads that warranted further review, including potential foreign links, but was unable to pursue them.

“There was more work for us to do on the potential of a foreign nexus … and we were blocked from doing that,” he said.

Kent described how access to information and interagency cooperation were restricted.

“All the requests that we would make … were just never met,” he said, adding that requests for data sharing “just continue to die on the vine.”

Kent added the NCC’s role is to examine possible foreign ties in such cases, even if most leads do not pan out.

Authorities have maintained that the suspect acted alone, but Kent said there were unanswered questions, including reports of individuals who appeared to have prior knowledge of the attack.

“There was enough of them that there’s something there,” he said, referring to online posts made before the killing.

Kent emphasized that he was not drawing conclusions about responsibility but argued the investigation should have continued.

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He said the decision to halt further inquiry left him “very bothered,” particularly given Kirk’s prominence and proximity to Trump.

The man who stands accused of Kirk’s assassination, Tyler Robinson, faces felony charges in the Sept. 10, 2025, shooting of Kirk at Utah Valley University and faces the death penalty if convicted. He has appeared in several hearings since the shooting but has not yet entered a plea.

Imaginary_Bus_6742 on March 19th, 2026 at 03:00 UTC »

What will trump not do to deflect attention from the Epstein files?

ItsJustForMyOwnKicks on March 19th, 2026 at 02:57 UTC »

It’s pretty easy to understand. The GOP fosters conspiracy theories to deflect.

samsounder on March 19th, 2026 at 02:55 UTC »

I’m not convinced Trump was shot