Charlie Kirk’s closest advisor Andrew Kolvet says images of a private group-chat he gave to Joe Kent, the intelligence official who just resigned from the Trump administration, later ended up on the Candace Owens show.
Kolvet, who remains the host of the Charlie Kirk Show, said on Monday that he handed over messages to Kent because he had believed Kent to be trustworthy and seeking the same thing he was: the truth about Kirk’s assassination. Kolvet said Kent urged him to make the messages public. He declined, but then they ended up in the public sphere anyway.
WATCH:
Here are the facts: Yes, I shared the screen grab with Joe Kent because I was told I could trust him and I wanted EVERY possible lead pursued. We’ve done this quietly behind the scenes with countless items.
Yes he did suggest I make it public. I declined. A few weeks later the… https://t.co/Jx09MBIoPr pic.twitter.com/7FzZEEtsRe
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) March 23, 2026
“I do want to confirm what I can confirm, and that is that, yes, in the immediate aftermath, I did provide the group chat to Joe Kent,” said Kolvet. “We don’t throw around accusations recklessly here, we don’t. There’s a lot people who do that online, we don’t do that. We think that’s keeping in the spirit of Charlie’s spirit, and the way we choose to do things is we try and be responsible. So, yes, in a spirit of looking at every lead, turning over every stone, we wanted everybody that needed to know, to know anything that we knew. Not just—I mean, and by the way, we’ve been accused of not being interested in the truth—”
Blake Neff, a co-host on the Charlie Kirk Show, interjected, “And just to remind people what this is referring to, this is after Charlie’s murder, there were text messages that, from a private group chat, that were made public and were used to, frankly, kick off the big conspiracy theory that we’ve run into over and over again, which is that Israel or the Jews had Charlie murdered. Which we do not believe.”
Kolvet complained that he thought he “could trust Joe Kent,” but was proven wrong.
“The actual fact of the matter is that behind the scenes, we have given everything we know to give, every single piece of information. This was one of them. I was told I could trust Joe Kent; I provided the screen grabs to Joe Kent, and I don’t know what happened to them at that point, okay? I just want to make that very clear,” Kolvet continued, adding that after some time had passed, Kent had suggested that he share the screen grabs publicly. Kolvet opted not to do so.
“I didn’t want to be reckless with them in the public; there could be innocent people on that group chat that would then be harmed. So I declined,” he explained. “But then, fast forward another week or two, and they were made public. So that’s what I know, is that Joe suggested that they be made public, I declined, then they were made public. Can I 100% categorically say that he leaked them? No. But those are the facts. Maybe somebody on his team, maybe they got passed around, maybe somebody else leaked them. But that’s—those are the facts of the matter. And that’s what I know.”
Kent is reportedly under investigation for leaking sensitive information while working as a top intelligence official in the Trump administration. President Donald Trump on Monday raised the possibility that he was a leaker in comments to The Daily Wire.
“I hear they’re looking at him for leaking,” Trump said. “That’s possible.”
Kolvet was pulled into the unfolding story when Rabbi Pesach Wolicki, on a recent podcast, said that Kent had leaked the screen grabs to Candace Owens — who used them to foment conspiracy theories tying Israel to Kirk’s murder in September 2025.
In the screen grabs, texts attributed to Kirk read, “Just lost another huge Jewish donor. $2 million a year because we won’t cancel Tucker. I’m thinking of inviting Candace,” and “Jewish donors play into all the stereotypes. I cannot and will not be bullied like this. Leaving me no choice but to leave the pro Israel cause.”
Tyler Robinson, the suspect facing trial for Kirk’s assassination, said in text messages obtained by police that he shot Kirk over his views on transgenderism.
