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Dan Bongino Says There Were ‘Multiple Warning Signs’ Leading Up To Charlie Kirk Assassination

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FBI deputy director Dan Bongino said on Monday that there were “multiple warning signs” and indications that people knew about alleged assassin Tyler Robinson’s plan to kill Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk ahead of the Sept. 10 assassination.

Robinson’s family members, friends and acquaintances told the FBI during their investigation that Robinson had become increasingly political and had indicated that he planned to target Kirk, Bongino said on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.” It appears that Robinson openly expressed his plan to kill Kirk in text messages and possibly in Discord chats, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.

“There appeared to be multiple warning signs,” Bongino said. “There were people in [Robinson’s] network, friends and family, who had stated that he had become more political … I believe some of his co-workers had stated that he had kinda detached himself when the topic of politics came up and walked away from them. Family members said he’d become more political, leading us to believe that this ideology had infected him and it had taken over and he was just intent, it appears, from the day that we accumulated and the channel and that note — which we have some evidence may have existed based on the communications in that channel — that his target was obviously going to be Charlie and that people knew in advance.” 

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Patel told “Fox & Friends” on Monday that Robinson expressed his intent to kill Kirk to an individual in a texting conversation. There is also forensic evidence that he had written a now-destroyed note that he was going to take the opportunity he had to kill Kirk, according to the FBI director.

It is unknown why no individual reported Robinson’s alleged assassination plans to the police.

Robinson is reportedly not cooperating with authorities and has not confessed to carrying out the shooting, Republican Utah Governor Spencer Cox said on Sunday. He reportedly confessed to committing the murder to his father, who then turned him in to authorities.

Just hours before his arrest, several friends who communicated with Robinson in a Discord chat confronted the suspect after the FBI released photographs of him during a manhunt search. Robinson allegedly claimed that his “doppelgänger” was trying to get him in trouble.

Robinson is alleged to have used a high-powered, bolt-action rifle to kill Kirk at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. The cartridges used in the shooting included messages such as, “Hey fascist! Catch!” and “If you read this you are gay LMAO.” Investigators also found the message, “bella ciao,” which references an Italian song which became a left-wing anthem during World War II.

The suspect had lived with his reported transgender boyfriend, Lance Twiggs, who has reportedly been cooperative with authorities. The FBI has obtained Robinson’s texting chains where he communicated with Twiggs.