FBI director Kash Patel denies social media post about Charlie Kirk ‘subject’ in custody was a mistake – live | Breaking News, Entertainment

Patel says FBI investigating Discord group chat where Kirk shooting suspect allegedly confessed

Patel told Republican senator Josh Hawley that the Discord chat in which the Kirk shooting suspect allegedly confessed to the murder was “leaked”.

Asked by Hawley whether the Kirk shooting is being treated as part of a broader trend of violence against religious groups, Patel responded: “We are investigating Charlie’s assassination fully and completely and running out every lead related to any allegation of broader violence.”

Patel also said that the FBI is investigating “anyone and everyone” who was involved in an online gaming chatroom on Discord with the alleged shooter. That chatroom involved “a lot more” than 20 people, Patel said, adding: “We’re running them all down.”

Schiff then challenges Patel over the administration’s handling of questions related to Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

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In particular, Schiff expresses outrage at Patel’s claim he had no knowledge of why Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sex-trafficking sentence related to the Epstein investigation, was moved to a minimum-security facility after speaking with deputy attorney general Todd Blanche.

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“You are the biggest fraud to ever sit in the United States Senate,” Patel yells. “You are disgrace to this institution and an utter coward.”

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Grassley bangs his gavel to try to restore order as the two continue arguing.

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“You are a political buffoon, at best,” Patel tells Schiff.

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“You can make an internet troll the FBI director, but will always be nothing more than an internet troll,” Schiff tries to yell over him.

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Durbin urges Grassley to take control of the hearing, prompting Grassley to bang his gavel and say: “Both of you, be quiet.”

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Democratic senator Adam Schiff asks Patel again whether FBI employees were fired for political retribution.

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“Are you testifying today that you never terminated anyone at the FBI in whole or in part because of a prior case assignment?” Schiff asks.

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Patel says: “No one at the FBI is terminated for case assignments alone.”

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Schiff highlights that Patel used the word alone. “Mr Patel, did you in whole or in part terminate anyone at the FBI because they worked on the Trump investigation, or because they worked on January 6?”

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Patel repeats: “No one at the FBI has been terminated for case assignments alone.”

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Schiff asks: “Does that mean they were terminated in part because they were assigned to a January 6 case, or assigned to the Mar-a-Lago case? You’re being very precise here, Mr Patel, you’re saying alone. That means they were fired in part because they were assigned those cases. Is that your testimony?”

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“Absolutely not,” Patel said.

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Attention will switch to Utah shortly, where county attorney Jeff Gray is due to file formal charges against Charlie Kirk’s suspected killer Tyler Robinson at 2pm ET.

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Gray will hold a news conference in around 30 minutes, where we should learn much more about the suspect and the case laid against him.

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Robinson is then due to appear in court for the first time – via video link – at 5pm ET.

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Patel posted in the hours after the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk that “the subject” was in custody even though the actual suspect was still at large.

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“I don’t see it as a mistake. I see it as something – working with the public to identify that there was a subject in custody,” Patel told senators.

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He said he wanted to inform the public that a subject had been taken into custody, even though that person did not end up being the suspect in the shooting.

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n

Could I have been more careful in my verbiage and said we had a subject instead of the subject? Sure.

n

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Democratic senator Peter Welch pushed back, saying it caused confusion by making it sound like authorities had caught the person suspected of killing Kirk.

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Patel shot back: “That’s not what I said.”

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Pennsylvania’s governor Josh Shapiro has said the US must “turn the tide” against political violence and the belief that government can’t solve problems while also rejecting vengeance, the AP reports.

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Shapiro, a Democrat, delivered the remarks at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit in Pittsburgh. Shapiro said leaders must condemn all forms of political violence and shouldn’t use violence as a pretext for more violence or to prosecute constitutionally protected speech.

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Shapiro also criticized Donald Trump, saying some people “in the dark corners of the internet, all the way to the Oval Office, want to cherry-pick which instances of political violence they want to condemn”.

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Trump and his allies have come under fire for blaming political violence squarely on the left, condemning violent acts committed against Republicans, and ignoring acts of violence against Democrats.

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In April, Shapiro and his family fled the governor’s official residence in the middle of the night after an alleged arsonist set it on fire in an attempt to kill Shapiro.

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Shapiro speaks at news briefing after a suspected arson fire that forced him, his family and guests to flee in the middle of the night on Passover on 13 April.”,”caption”:”Josh Shapiro speaks at news briefing after a suspected arson fire that forced him, his family and guests to flee in the middle of the night on Passover on 13 April.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Marc Levy/AP”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1758042717000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”13.11 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1758043064000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”13.17 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1758042890000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”13.14 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”13.14″,”title”:”US must ‘turn the tide’ against political violence and reject vengeance, says Pennsylvania governor”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Tue 16 Sep 2025 13.50 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Tue 16 Sep 2025 05.40 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Booker says Trump promised to make the country safer, but says Patel’s actions at the FBI have led to the opposite.

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“You have pushed out senior FBI agents with decades of knowledge and experience,” Booker says. “In fact, this is the first time in FBI history that neither the director nor the deputy director have any experience with the FBI. You’ve shifted the agency’s priorities primarily to pursuing Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda.

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“I believe you have made our country weaker and less safe,” Booker says, “by gutting the agency of knowledge and expertise” and having agents “do low-level immigration enforcement instead of their mission-critical work”.

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“You don’t get to say that America is not safer under this leadership,” Patel says. “America is safer because of the FBI.”

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Booker says he believes the US is more vulnerable to a domestic or foreign attack because of Patel’s “failing as a leader”.

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n

In just eight months you have assaulted the institutional integrity of the FBI.

n

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He then predicts that Patel won’t hold the job as director for much longer.

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n

Here’s the thing, Mr Patel, I think you’re not going to be around long … I think this might be your last oversight hearing.

n

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“Sir, that rant of false information does not bring this country together,” Patel responds.

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The exchange then descends into a yelling match, with Chuck Grassley having to pound his gavel to struggle to contain them, bringing the questioning to a halt.

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Cory Booker then revisits Patel’s testimony that Donald Trump had declassified the documents at issue in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.

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Booker asks Patel if he testified before the grand jury that Trump declassified the documents.

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Patel says he should read the transcript.

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“Why are you refusing to answer that simple yes or no question right now?” asks Booker, as the exchange becomes tense.

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Patel insists the premise of the question is “inaccurate” and asks Booker how he knows what was said before the grand jury if he wasn’t there.

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“Mr Patel, this is a mockery you’re making of this hearing,” says Booker, as Patel shrugs.

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Patel told Republican senator Josh Hawley that the Discord chat in which the Kirk shooting suspect allegedly confessed to the murder was “leaked”.

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Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse puts it to Patel that there have been “adverse actions of various kinds taken against” 20 out of 60 people on his so-called enemies list.

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“You’ve been in office for seven months. At that rate, you’ve got 14 months until you’ve hit all 60,” Whitehouse said.

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“That is an entirely inaccurate presupposition,” Patel replied. “I do not have an enemies list. You can continue to characterize it as you wish. The only actions we take, generally speaking, for personnel of the FBI, are ones based on merit and qualification and your ability to uphold your constitutional duty. You fall short, you don’t work there anymore.”

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Patel identified 60 alleged “deep state” actors in his 2023 book “Government Gangsters”. He has rejected the idea that it’s an enemies list.

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Questioned by Durbin on the recent firings of FBI agents, Patel said he would not get into personnel decisions and accused him of unfairly attacking FBI leadership.

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Earlier in the hearing, Patel called it “absolutely disgraceful” to cite what he described as a “one-sided story” about the firings.

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“Your attack on the current leadership of the men and women of the FBI is equally disgraceful,” Patel told Durbin.

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The AP notes he is facing a lawsuit from three high-ranking FBI officials who have accused him of illegally firing them in a “campaign of retribution”.

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Durbin asked Patel about unfounded statements from Dan Bongino before he became deputy FBI director that the bombs found at the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee on 6 January 2021 were an “inside job”.

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Patel declined to comment on Bongino’s comments, but called Durbin’s criticism of Bongino “disgusting”.

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“So you have no evidence?” asked Durbin.

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“I got a lot of evidence, and I’ll give it to you when I can,” Patel said.

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The person who placed the bombs just before the attack on the US Capitol that day has never been identified.

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The Senate hearing quickly became tense, with the FBI director repeatedly avoiding answering questions from Durbin on how the bureau has administered polygraph tests to staff.

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Patel told Durbin, the top Democrat on the judiciary committee, that he wouldn’t discuss the specifics of how polygraph tests are administered or what questions come up.

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Durbin responded: “You have to have a decent memory when you come before a committee.”

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The Associated Press has previously reported that agents and senior executives alike have been subjected to polygraph exams aimed at ferreting out disclosures of information related to Patel.

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Patel starts off defending his actions during the Charlie Kirk shooting investigation.

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He tells the Senate panel that his agency – “at my direction” – successfully brought the suspect into custody.

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While he tells lawmakers that his order to release “never-before-seen video of the suspect” played a crucial role in the arrest, the New York Times notes that local authorities have said the routine release of the images might have played a role but the key break came when a family member identified the suspect, Tyler Robinson.

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Durbin says Patel “sparked mass confusion” by announcing too early that the suspect in the shooting of Charlie Kirk had been caught.

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“At critical stages of an investigation, shut up and let professionals do their job,” says Durbin.

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Democratic senator Dick Durbin has just called Kash Patel “arguably the most partisan FBI director ever” and said “he came to the FBI with a political mission” and “attacked the FBI with a vengeance”.

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Under-fire FBI director Kash Patel will confront Senate Democrats at a congressional hearing at 9am ET, likely to be dominated by questions about the investigation into the killing of Charlie Kirk, as well as the agency’s role in reviewing the files related to the Epstein case, and recent firings of senior officials who have accused Patel of illegal political retribution.

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His appearance before the Senate judiciary committee represents the first oversight hearing of Patel’s young but tumultuous tenure. Most recently he has faced criticism for his actions and social media posts during the Kirk shooting investigation, which have raised questions about his experience and judgement, including being seen as “grandstanding” with regards to his own role, and prematurely (and wrongly) announcing on X that the suspect had been caught.

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This hearing provides a high-stakes platform for him to try to reassure wary lawmakers that he is the right person for the job at a time of internal upheaval and mounting concerns about political violence inside the US, which Donald Trump and his allies have sought to blame squarely on the left.

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We’ll bring you all the latest from the hearing when it gets underway.

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The Trump administration will appeal the court decision blocking Donald Trump’s bid to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, the White House said on Tuesday.

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“The President lawfully removed Lisa Cook for cause. The Administration will appeal this decision and looks forward to ultimate victory on the issue,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said.

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Yesterday, a US appeals court declined to allow Trump to fire Cook, in the latest step in a legal battle that threatens the Fed’s longstanding independence.

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The decision by the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit meant that Cook could for now remain at the Fed ahead of its policy meeting today and Wednesday where it is expected to cut US interest rates to shore up a cooling labor market.

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The judge denied the justice department’s request to put on hold a judge’s order temporarily blocking Trump from removing Cook, an appointee of Joe Biden. It was the first time a president has pursued such action since the central bank’s founding in 1913. The administration was expected to appeal the ruling to the US supreme court.

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Here’s our story on that from last night:

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The president, vice-president and members of Congress have begun calling for the government to investigate progressive organizations in the wake of the Charlie Kirk murder, in terms those targeted say are reminiscent of the House Un-American Activities Committee and the “red scare” of the 1950s.

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Donald Trump, speaking to Fox & Friends on Friday, presented “vicious and horrible” radicals on the left of US politics as a roadblock to the country coming together politically after the shooting. On Sunday, he amplified his attack on political enemies by declaring that “a lot of people that you would traditionally say are on the left … [are] already under investigation”.

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The posture is being echoed by members of his administration.

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“With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the DoJ, Homeland Security, and throughout this government, to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these networks,” said Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy, speaking to Vice-President JD Vance while Vance guest-hosted Kirk’s podcast Monday. “We will do it in Charlie’s name.”

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The day after Kirk’s murder, 22 members of the House freedom caucus sent a letter to the House speaker, asking for the creation of a select committee on “the money, influence, and power behind the radical left’s assault on America and the rule of law”.

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The letter, echoing commentary from the president and the right, contends that Kirk’s murder is of a pattern of “coordinated attack” by “NGOs, donors, media, public officials” and others, attempting to tie together widely distinct incidents , from the February 2024 murder of Georgia college student Laken Riley to the killing last month of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte.

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None of the organizations in the letter, nor other prominent organizations on the political left, said they had been contacted by federal law enforcement or Congress in the wake of the Kirk killing. Some, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) or the Open Society Foundations – an organization closely associated with financier George Soros – have been through rounds of rightwing congressional inquiry during Trump’s first term.

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In response to a question about why he did not order flags lowered to half-staff to honor Melissa Hortman, the Democratic speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives who was assassinated alongside her husband this summer, Donald Trump initially said he was “not familiar” with the case.

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The question came up during a briefing in the Oval Office on Monday, in light of the president’s order last week to lower flags in response to the killing of rightwing activist Charlie Kirk.

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Trump was pressed on why he and Republicans continued cast blame the left for a rise in political violence when elected officials and activists from both parties have been targets.

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The exchange began when the reporter asked about the tributes paid by the White House to Kirk, the founder of the conservative youth activist group Turning Point USA and a close ally of the president and his family.

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“Do you think it would have been fitting to lower the flags to half-staff when Melissa Hortman, the Minnesota house speaker, was gunned down by an assassin as well?” asked Nancy Cordes, the chief White House correspondent for CBS News.

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“I’m not familiar. The who?” Trump replied, leaning in across the Resolute Desk.

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“The Minnesota house speaker, a Democrat, who was assassinated this summer,” she said.

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“Oh,” Trump replied. “Well, if the governor had asked me to do that, I would have done that.”

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JD Vance has assailed what he called the “far left” and its increased tolerance for violence while guest-hosting Charlie Kirk’s podcast on Monday, saying the administration would be working to dismantle groups who celebrate Kirk’s death and political violence against their opponents.

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Vance, hosting the podcast from his office next to the White House, spoke to high-profile members of the Trump administration and some of Kirk’s long-time friends in the movement, including Tucker Carlson and Trump adviser Stephen Miller.

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Vance said the administration would “work to dismantle the institutions that promote violence and terrorism in our own country”.

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The administration would be working to do that in the coming months and would “explore every option to bring real unity to our country and stop those who would kill their fellow Americans because they don’t like what they say”, Vance said.

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The political leanings of the shooter who killed Kirk are not yet clear. Bullet casings found with the shooter’s gun were inscribed with references to video games and online culture. Still, prominent figures on the right – before a shooter was apprehended – declared war on the left, claiming it was responsible for Kirk’s death.

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There is no evidence of a network supporting the shooter, and Miller did not provide substantiation of his claims that there is a “vast domestic terror movement” at play.

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Miller also detailed how the administration would use the federal government to achieve this goal.

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“With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, [Department of] Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks,” Miller said, adding that they would do this “in Charlie’s name”.

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Good morning and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.

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We start with news that Donald Trump has filed a $15bn defamation lawsuit against the New York Times in his latest use of legal action targeting a major media outlet.

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The US president accused it of being a “mouthpiece” for the Democratic party and of “spreading false and defamatory content” about him.

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It comes after the New York Times said last week that it had been threatened with legal action by the White House, following articles about a crude birthday note given to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The note bears Trump’s signature, but the president has denied being its author.

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In July he launched legal action against another big US paper, the Wall Street Journal, and its proprietor Rupert Murdoch, after it first reported the existence of the note, which also featured a lewd drawing. It has since been published, but Trump continues to deny being its author.

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The filing against the NYT, the latest demonstration of the president’s willingness to use legal action against the media, was made by Trump’s lawyers to a district court in Florida on Monday night.

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It names several articles and one book written by two of the publication’s journalists and published in the lead-up to the 2024 election.

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“The Times has betrayed the journalistic ideals of honesty, objectivity, and accuracy that it once professed,” it states, also accusing the NYT of being “a leading, and unapologetic, purveyor of falsehoods against President Trump”.

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The NYT has not yet responded.

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Read the full story here:

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In other developments:

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n
Donald Trump announced he will deploy the national guard to Memphis during an Oval Office ceremony attended by the Tennessee governor Bill Lee. He added that he is considering sending national guard troops to “Chicago probably next” and floated cities such as St Louis may follow.

n
A US appeals court ruled that Lisa Cook can remain on the Federal Reserve board, denying Trump’s attempt to remove Cook from the body ahead of a policy meeting scheduled later today. Trump will likely appeal the ruling to the supreme court. Meanwhile, Reuters reported that the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan, has “no reason to believe” that Cook broke any tax rules involving a home she declared her primary residence.

n
The Senate voted to approve Stephen Miran to the Federal Reserve board in a narrow 48-47 vote largely along party lines. Miran, a Trump ally, currently serves as the White House’s chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. The vote comes just as the Fed is scheduled to gather for a two-day policy meeting where it is expected to vote on cutting interest rates.

n
JD Vance guest-hosted the late Charlie Kirk’s podcast yesterday live from his office in the White House complex. Vance was joined by key conservative voices, and members of the Trump administration, including Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of policy and architect of the administration’s hardline immigration policy, press secretary Karoline Leavitt, chief of staff Susie Wiles and health secretary RFK Jr.

n
Marco Rubio met Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem today. Rubio will travel to Qatar today.

n
Trump announced that the US military had conducted a strike on a second Venezuelan boat which he said was transporting narcotics. Trump said three men had been killed in the strike and that no US forces were harmed. Democratic lawmakers called for investigations into the legality of the strikes.

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Schiff-Patel exchange turns fiery in second shouting match of hearing

Schiff then challenges Patel over the administration’s handling of questions related to Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

“You are the biggest fraud to ever sit in the United States Senate,” Patel yells. “You are disgrace to this institution and an utter coward.”

Grassley bangs his gavel to try to restore order as the two continue arguing.

“You are a political buffoon, at best,” Patel tells Schiff.

“You can make an internet troll the FBI director, but will always be nothing more than an internet troll,” Schiff tries to yell over him.

Durbin urges Grassley to take control of the hearing, prompting Grassley to bang his gavel and say: “Both of you, be quiet.”

Patel insists FBI employees weren’t terminated ‘for case assignments alone’

Democratic senator Adam Schiff asks Patel again whether FBI employees were fired for political retribution.

“Are you testifying today that you never terminated anyone at the FBI in whole or in part because of a prior case assignment?” Schiff asks.

Patel says: “No one at the FBI is terminated for case assignments alone.”

Patel repeats: “No one at the FBI has been terminated for case assignments alone.”

“Absolutely not,” Patel said.

Utah to file formal charges against Kirk shooting suspect

Attention will switch to Utah shortly, where county attorney Jeff Gray is due to file formal charges against Charlie Kirk’s suspected killer Tyler Robinson at 2pm ET.

Gray will hold a news conference in around 30 minutes, where we should learn much more about the suspect and the case laid against him.

Robinson is then due to appear in court for the first time – via video link – at 5pm ET.

Patel defends social media post about Kirk subject in custody

Patel posted in the hours after the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk that “the subject” was in custody even though the actual suspect was still at large.

“I don’t see it as a mistake. I see it as something – working with the public to identify that there was a subject in custody,” Patel told senators.

He said he wanted to inform the public that a subject had been taken into custody, even though that person did not end up being the suspect in the shooting.

Could I have been more careful in my verbiage and said we had a subject instead of the subject? Sure.

Democratic senator Peter Welch pushed back, saying it caused confusion by making it sound like authorities had caught the person suspected of killing Kirk.

Patel shot back: “That’s not what I said.”

US must ‘turn the tide’ against political violence and reject vengeance, says Pennsylvania governor

Trump and his allies have come under fire for blaming political violence squarely on the left, condemning violent acts committed against Republicans, and ignoring acts of violence against Democrats.

In April, Shapiro and his family fled the governor’s official residence in the middle of the night after an alleged arsonist set it on fire in an attempt to kill Shapiro.

Josh Shapiro speaks at news briefing after a suspected arson fire that forced him, his family and guests to flee in the middle of the night on Passover on 13 April. Photograph: Marc Levy/AP

Cruz urges Patel to “follow the money”, suggesting – as Trump has many times – that political violence is being funded and promoted by certain individuals/organizations.

Patel says: “We’ve been following the money, issuing lawful process to organizations involved in criminal activity, because the money has to come from somewhere and it has to be funded somehow.

“So we have extensive investigations into numerous organizations that are related to violent criminal activity.”

Weighing in on the controversy surrounding people posting comments critical of Charlie Kirk on social media since his killing, Republican senator Ted Cruz encourages the FBI to “focus on conduct”.

“Under our Constitution, under the Bill of Rights, the First Amendment, speech is protected, and that’s true even for vile speech,” Cruz says. “Someone can stand up and say the most hateful thing, and it’s protected by the First Amendment.”

He continues: “Speech can guide you to those engaged in conduct.”

Booker-Patel exchange descends into shouting match

Booker says Trump promised to make the country safer, but says Patel’s actions at the FBI have led to the opposite.

“You don’t get to say that America is not safer under this leadership,” Patel says. “America is safer because of the FBI.”

Booker says he believes the US is more vulnerable to a domestic or foreign attack because of Patel’s “failing as a leader”.

In just eight months you have assaulted the institutional integrity of the FBI.

He then predicts that Patel won’t hold the job as director for much longer.

Here’s the thing, Mr Patel, I think you’re not going to be around long … I think this might be your last oversight hearing.

“Sir, that rant of false information does not bring this country together,” Patel responds.

The exchange then descends into a yelling match, with Chuck Grassley having to pound his gavel to struggle to contain them, bringing the questioning to a halt.

Booker asks if Patel discussed the matter with White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

Patel says: “Not that I recall.”

Booker asks Patel under what authority he terminated former acting FBI director Brian Driscoll, who is suing Patel for alleged wrongful termination.

Patel says he can’t discuss the matter as it’s under litigation.

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