Overview
- Andrew Kolvet, a spokesman and co-host of The Charlie Kirk Show, said Monday he gave Charlie Kirk’s private group-chat screenshots to then–NCTC director Joe Kent and declined Kent’s later push to publish them before Candace Owens posted the images weeks afterward.
- Kolvet emphasized he cannot say Kent leaked the images and floated that someone else could have done so, while Kent has denied passing the messages to Owens and said he did nothing wrong.
- Multiple outlets report the FBI is examining whether Kent leaked classified information while in government, and President Trump said investigators are looking at him for leaking.
- The screenshots that Owens posted in October showed messages attributed to Kirk about losing a major Jewish donor and frustration with pro-Israel pressure, and Kolvet and co-host Blake Neff said those posts helped fuel an Israel-did-it conspiracy they reject.
- The dispute is roiling conservative media and donor circles, with coverage diverging as Mediaite brands Owens a conspiracy theorist and right-leaning sites foreground Kolvet’s account and the reported federal probe, and it raises ethical concerns about airing private chats that could harm people in the thread.