https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/01/business/media/candace-owens-defamation-charlie-kirk.html?unlocked_article_code=1.fFA.vHK1.q_kT2n0fdCEu&smid=url-share
The lawsuit focuses on remarks made by Ms. Owens, a right-wing podcaster, about Mr. Kirk’s killing, highlighting a growing tension among factions of the American right.
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Candace Owens stands in front a blue backdrop holding a microphone.
Candace Owens at AmericaFest, an event hosted by Turning Point USA, in Phoenix in 2022.Credit...Rebecca Noble for The New York Times
Ken Bensinger
By Ken Bensinger
May 1, 2026
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The former head of security for Charlie Kirk sued the podcaster Candace Owens on Thursday for defamation, claiming that she falsely implicated him in a conspiracy to assassinate Mr. Kirk.
The former security chief, Brian Harpole, alleged that Ms. Owens, a right-wing firebrand, inaccurately accused him of meeting with Mr. Kirk’s wife, Erika, at a military base a day before Mr. Kirk was shot at Utah Valley University in September. He is also suing Mitch Snow, a retired Army sergeant who stated on Ms. Owens’s podcast that he was an eyewitness to what he described as the secret encounter.
In the 69-page lawsuit, Mr. Harpole, who owns a private security firm and worked for Mr. Kirk for several years, accused Ms. Owens of “engaging in a coordinated and deliberate campaign designed to defame” him.
He denied any involvement in any plot to assassinate Mr. Kirk and called Ms. Owens a “conspiracy theorist” who displayed a “pattern of seeking public attention and media exposure.”
Ms. Owens responded to the lawsuit on her daily podcast on Thursday evening, calling it “insane,” challenging Mr. Harpole’s allegations and denying any wrongdoing. “I’ve only ever been interested in getting to the truth of what happened to Charlie Kirk,” she said.
A spokesman for Ms. Owens said she had no comment beyond what she said on her podcast. Mr. Snow did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Nashville, is the latest volley in an internal conflict that has been roiling the country’s political right, with factions forming around divisive issues like the war against Iran, President Trump’s economic and immigration policies, and the circumstances around the killing of Mr. Kirk, who co-founded the conservative youth group Turning Point USA.
Ms. Owens has placed herself at the center of many of those disputes, especially when it comes to Mr. Kirk, who for many years was a close friend of hers. She has made his killing a primary focus of her podcast, framing it without evidence as the product of a far-reaching conspiracy involving Israel, France and the U.S. military. And she has repeatedly suggested to her nearly six million YouTube subscribers that Mrs. Kirk, the activist’s widow, was involved in an elaborate cover-up.
The commissioner of Utah’s Department of Public Safety has said Tyler Robinson, who was charged with murdering Mr. Kirk, acted alone, although Mr. Trump and others have broadly accused “the radical left” with inciting the violent act.
In July, Ms. Owens was sued for defamation by Brigitte Macron, the wife of the French president Emmanuel Macron, for claiming she is transgender. In recent months Ms. Owens has sparred publicly with the right-wing influencers Jessica Reed Kraus and Laura Loomer, who called her “depraved” because of her treatment of Mrs. Kirk. The lawsuit from Ms. Macron is still pending in Delaware state court.
Last month, Mr. Trump got involved, posting on Truth Social that Ms. Owens is an “extremely Low IQ individual” and sharing a doctored image that referred to her as “vile person of the year.” He also called Ms. Owens’s claims about Ms. Macron “despicable.” Two members of Congress this week introduced a bipartisan House resolution condemning Ms. Owens, as well as a left-wing livestreamer, for “antisemitic hate-filled rhetoric.”
Mr. Harpole’s suit seeks an injunction requiring Ms. Owens to remove defamatory statements from social media as well as financial damages. His lawyer, Matthew Sarelson of the Dhillon Law Group, said on social media that he and his client “will not be providing any other statements.”
On her podcast, Ms. Owens suggested that she welcomed the lawsuit because she believed it would allow her to use the discovery process to seek additional information from Mr. Harpole and Turning Point, including text messages, video footage and a deposition of Mrs. Kirk.
In January, Turning Point also sent Ms. Owens a cease-and-desist letter, portions of which she read on her show at the time. The letter demanded that Ms. Owens stop claiming that the nonprofit or any of its employees or affiliates “knew about the assassination beforehand, participated in the assassination day-of or covered up the truth about the assassination after the fact.”
A spokesman for Turning Point did not respond to a request for comment.
Ken Bensinger covers media and politics for The Times.
