Vice President JD Vance has floated a wild conspiracy theory about the murder of his friend, right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
Vance, 41, was close to Kirk, who was 31 when he was fatally shot by an assassin in September last year while speaking at Utah Valley University rally.
Tyler Robinson, the man accused of killing Kirk, appeared in court in a preliminary hearing in Utah this week. The 23-year-old is facing seven charges, including aggravated murder and weapons charges.
Prosecutors claim Robinson targeted Kirk based on his political beliefs and are seeking the death penalty. Robinson has not entered a plea.
In a new interview, Vance said he has no doubt that Robinson “pulled the trigger and killed” Kirk, claiming, “I think the evidence is clear on that.“
However, he also shared his conspiracy theory that more people were “directly involved” in the shooting.
“I’m always going to wonder,” Vance told the Daily Wire.
“I’m always going to wonder what was said and how many contacts [Robinson] had beforehand. By the way, it doesn’t mean that [Robinson’s] any less guilty.
He added, “But do I wonder if there are other people who are more directly involved in Charlie’s murder? Absolutely, because I don’t think that it’s possible for a young man to get radicalized like that without somebody encouraging him, whether informally or formally.”
He continued, “I think there are a lot of people with blood on their hands in the case of Charlie Kirk, but of course, the person most directly who has blood on their hands is Tyler Robinson.”
Kirk was credited with helping to convince Donald Trump to adopt Vance as his vice president.
In their bestselling book Regime Change New York Times journalists Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman said Vance’s fears lurched toward the conspiratorial.
The book reported that Vance’s “instincts told him” there was a “larger plot behind the murder.”
The authors state that he “went down countless online rabbit holes, becoming so consumed by the videos and the theories that his wife, Usha, told him she was worried about him.”
Vance admitted to the Daily Wire, “Do I think that Tyler Robinson is part of a broader network of left-wing radicals who have fomented and encouraged violence? Absolutely. Do I know that they communicated with Tyler Robinson before the shooting? No, I don’t have evidence for that.”
Vance insisted that “a bunch of left-wing radicals” had preached a message “that it’s OK to kill people you disagree with.”
“Unfortunately, for my friend and importantly for his family, there’s at least one guy in Utah who took that message to heart and murdered a young, innocent father,” he said.
This week’s preliminary hearing is not a trial, so the burden of proof is much lower. District Judge Tony Graf will determine whether there is “probable cause” that Robinson likely committed a crime, compared to the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard that jurors must find in a trial.
This week, Donald Trump Jr. attended the Provo courtroom for the Robinson trial, and angered Kirk supporters who have repeatedly insisted that there’s a larger conspiracy behind his death.
Robinson allegedly admitted to killing Kirk in unsealed text messages to his roommate after the shooting, saying he “had enough of his hatred,” according to testimony from Thursday’s hearing.
The president’s son said that unsealed evidence from the preliminary hearing had busted “conspiracy theories” surrounding his death.
“Based on everything that I saw in that courtroom, it’s very clear to me that Tyler Robinson did this,” Trump Jr. said on Fox News on Thursday.
“The DNA evidence, the fact that… minor details like, he turned himself in… to me, it puts so much of this at rest... I don’t think anyone can say I don’t have my conspiracy theory bona fides, I’ve seen plenty of them... I wanted to see what actually was there, what the actual evidence was."
“To me, this stuff is very cut and dry at this point,” he added.
Trump Jr, 48, questioned the lack of security at the fatal Utah Valley University rally.
“The biggest question in my mind at this point is not whether Tyler Robinson did this, or if it was some people from a foreign land, or another planet—it was: why were there only six police officers active at a major event on a university campus?” he asked.
