Thursday, March 19, 2026

The Joe Kent Story Goes Deeper Into The Weeds

There was an initial hint in the morning's news that there might be more to the Joe Kent story:

According to Semafor, Joe Kent, the top counterterrorism official who just resigned in protest of the Iran war, is under FBI investigation for leaking classified information.

The investigation predates Kent’s departure, Semafor’s White House correspondent reported.

Joe Kent resigned on Tuesday and said the US started the war against Iran due to pressure from Israel.

That immediately fed my instinct that anyone who resigns in that sort of public fit is likely about to be shown the door and knows it. It does appear that Kent had been a behind-the-scenes source for Tucker Carlson at least since the runup to Operation Midnight Hammer on June 22, 2025:

On Wednesday, Fox News’ Mark Levin accused Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center who resigned in protest of the Trump administration’s ongoing operation on Iran on Tuesday, of telling Tucker Carlson about a meeting Levin had with President Donald Trump last summer.

On June 4, 2025, Carlson tweeted that “Mark Levin was at the White House today, lobbying for war with Iran. To be clear, Levin has no plans to fight in this or any other war. He’s demanding that American troops do it. We need to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons, he and likeminded ideologues in Washington are now arguing.”

Farther down, the link quoted from Levin's Wednesday post,

“I know for a fact Kent leaked to Tucker Carlson a meeting the President had with me, at the President’s request, which Carlson in turn used on the internet. No President should be treated like that,” revealed Levin. “Apparently, there were more. Not good. And the appalling antisemitism in Kent’s public letter deserves judgment, which is why so many of all faiths are condemning it.”

This strongly suggests that the investigation of Kent's leaking had to do with Tucker Carlson, and the axe was likely to fall. But Kent's ties aren't just to Carlson, and they don't just involve Iran: The tweet goes on to say that Joe Kent was investigating allegations that Charlie Kirk was assassinated because he was going to turn against Israel, and the FBI was preventing him from looking into it:

On October 1, 2025, Candace Owens said she was “very aware of what’s going on” and claimed that “about 48 hours before Charlie Kirk died, Charlie Kirk informed people at Turning Point, Jewish donors, as well as a rabbi, that he had no choice but to abandon the pro-Israel cause.”

. . . The New York Times reported on October 28 that Joe Kent, while still serving as director of the United States National Counterterrorism Center, had:

“examined FBI files in the last several weeks to investigate whether the man charged with assassinating Charlie Kirk had support from someone else, a foreign power, or another entity, according to multiple people with knowledge of the matter.”

Which, according to the Times article:

“alarmed Kash Patel, the director of the FBI. Mr. Patel and other senior officials believed Mr. Kent was overstepping, treading on FBI responsibilities, and potentially interfering with the investigation and the prosecution of the suspect, Tyler Robinson.”

After resigning from his role as director of the United States National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show today. Speaking about the Charlie Kirk investigation, he said, “there’s still linkage for us to investigate,” and pointed directly to the group chat text messages that Andrew Kolvet had handed over to the US government - and that Candace Owens had used on her show - as evidence of that.

So all of a sudden, via Joe Kent of all people, we're drawn into the Candace Owens-Erika Kirk feud, of the specifics of which I had known almost nothing. I asked my AI oracle to fill me in: "What is the basis for Candace Owens's complaints against Erika Kirk?" It answered,

Candace Owens’s complaints against Erika Kirk, the widow of Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder Charlie Kirk, primarily stem from Owens's refusal to accept the official account of Charlie Kirk's 2025 assassination. Owens has used her podcast to launch an "investigative series" titled "Bride of Charlie," accusing Erika of personal dishonesty and complicity in a broader cover-up.

. . . Owens disputes that the charged gunman, Tyler Robinson, acted alone or was even the real killer. She has alleged the murder was an "inside job" involving TPUSA employees and foreign governments, including Israel, France, and Egypt.

. . . In episodes like "EXPLOSIVE! What Erika Kirk Was Doing In Epstein's Orbit," Owens attempted to link Erika to Jeffrey Epstein based on tenuous connections to a modeling agency, though no evidence of direct contact has been provided.

Ah, so the idea that Tyler Robinson had a trans furry boyfriend is completely irrelevant, Robinson wasn't even the shooter, it was done by World Jewry via Epstein, who was years in the grave but no matter, because Charlie Kirk was going to break free of Erika's manipulation and out the Jewish connection with TPUSA! And Joe Kent was investigating this on Candace Owens's behalf, except Kash Patel doesn't want him overstepping!

You know what? My respect for Kash Patel just went zooming upward. But this also goes to the overall nuttiness behind the so-called war within MAGA. There seems to be a real strain of anti-Semitic conspiracy theory at the heart of the rift, except that MAGA itself so far hasn't bought in:

I have no problem believing that Joe Kent had been kept out of the ODNI loop for months, even if he was still in the office. I would also surmise that Tulsi Gabbard and the others at ODNI hadn't pushed Kent out sooner simply because he was kept from doing more harm, he was basically a nut, and they had a lot of other higher-priority stuff on their plate.

But what does this say about Tucker Carlson and the others, like Megyn Kelly, on Tucker's side of the putative MAGA rift?

posted by test @ March 19, 2026   0 Comments