Prosecutors say Charlie Kirk, who shot the attorney, misled the public at the request of the ATF
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Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk and CEO of Turning Point USA, speaks powerfully about the political climate after her husband’s assassination in 2025 and the horror of the recent shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. Kirk says “Our country has become invisible” and decries the “epidemic of humiliation” and the “culture of murder,” specifically calling out Jimmy Kimmel’s “waiting widow” joke aimed at Melania Trump. Fox News contributor Joe Concha offers his insights.
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Utah prosecutors accused Tyler Robinson’s defense team of misleading the public in court before trying to get authorities punished in an attempt to “set the record straight.”
Ironically, the prosecutors also noted that the defendant’s claim is spreading after the media recording.
Robinson’s attorneys have previously complained that coverage of the trial jeopardized his right to a fair trial and have a pending motion to bar news cameras from future trials.
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Tyler Robinson is accused of shooting and killing Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk at a public speaking event at Utah Valley University in September. (Bethany Baker/Pool via REUTERS, Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images)
The motion by Utah Deputy District Attorney Christopher Ballard came after the defense was approved by prosecutors for speaking out of court.
He said prosecutors did nothing wrong because even though court rules, such as Utah Rule of Professional Conduct 3.6(c), and gag orders limit what can be said about the case, they allowed lawyers on both sides to “set the record straight.”
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Robinson’s attorneys, in court, asserted that “ATF was unable to identify the bullet found during the autopsy of the gun that was allegedly tied to Mr. Robinson.”
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The claim, which Ballard described as misleading and “false,” generated billions of views in just one report — and prompted additional coverage in local and national media, the prosecutor wrote.
It also fanned the flames of unsubstantiated allegations that other people may have been responsible for Kirk’s murder.
Tyler Robinson points as he sits next to defense attorney Kathryn Nester during a hearing in 4th District Court in Provo on Jan. 16, 2026. Robinson is accused in the shooting that killed Charlie Kirk. (Bethany Baker/The Salt Lake Tribune)
But the defense left an important part of the total, according to Ballard.
“ATF could not identify or not include the bullet seems to have been fired from a gun,” he wrote emphasizing the missing details written in italics.
“The defendant reinforced this misleading assumption by following it up by saying, ‘attorneys may decide to offer the testimony of the ATF firearms analyst as exculpatory evidence,'” he added.
TAXPAYER COST OF ALLEGED DEATH PENALTY OF CHARLIE KIRK ASSASSIN REPORTED BY UTAH COMMISSIONER.
Prosecutors Jeffrey S. Gray and Ryan McBride stand outside the Utah County District Court in Provo, Utah, on Oct. 24, 2025. They are prosecuting Tyler Robinson, the suspect in the murder of Charlie Kirk. (Alec Thornock/Fox News Digital)
In response, members of the prosecution team tried to provide more context to the public hearings, explaining the ATF’s conclusions while noting that the defendant is innocent until proven guilty, Ballard wrote.
Judge Tony Graf Jr. eventually withheld the ATF report to give the public direct access to the source.
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Ballard asked the judge to deny the prosecutors’ motion and their request that prosecutors turn over internal communications, which he said were work products.
Attorney Richard Novak speaks during the trial of Tyler Robinson, accused in the shooting death of law enforcement activist Charlie Kirk, in the 4th District Court in Provo, Utah, March 13, 2026. (Laura Seitz/Deseret News)
If the prosecutors’ public statements are anything to go by, the defense already has them, he noted.
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An appendix to the ATF report explained that an “incomplete” finding means “it was the examiner’s opinion that there was insufficient quality and/or quantity of individual symptoms to be identified or excluded.”
Experts told Fox News Digital that it is not unusual for a bullet to scatter on impact, making ballistic identification impossible.
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Defense attorneys Richard G. Novak, Michael N. Burt, and Kathryn Nester represent Tyler Robinson in his impeachment hearing in Utah County Court in Provo, Utah, on September 29, 2025. Robinson is accused of killing Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. (Laura Seitz/The Deseret News)
However, prosecutors found a dismissed case involving the bullet and the alleged murder weapon.
Just before Kirk was killed, Robinson allegedly climbed onto the roof across from the yard where Kirk was talking and shot his grandfather’s Mauser.
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Horrifying video footage shows the bullet hitting Kirk in the neck in front of a crowd of around 3,000 people. He died from his injuries.
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed while appearing on the “American Comeback Tour” at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on September 10, 2025. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images)
Prosecutors said campus police found marks left on the stone roof after the shooting “consistent with the gunman sleeping. [there] – from the stone that may be left by the elbows, knees and feet of a person in a shooting position.”
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Police found the gun wrapped in a blanket in a patch of woods near the center. And prosecutors said text messages between Robinson and her boyfriend, Lance Twiggs, allegedly discussed wanting to get the gun back.
“Holding on for a while in Orem,” Robinson allegedly wrote hours after the murder. “It shouldn’t be long until I get home, but I have to hold my gun and stand still.”
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Twiggs is cooperating with investigators and has not been charged.
Robinson could face the death penalty if convicted of the highest charge of aggravated murder.
