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| Candace Owens |
The former head of security for Charlie Kirk has filed a defamation lawsuit against podcaster Candace Owens, accusing her of falsely implicating him in a conspiracy to assassinate the conservative activist.
Brian Harpole, who served as Kirk’s security chief for several years and now owns a private security firm, claims Owens wrongly accused him of meeting with Kirk’s wife, Erika, at a military base one day before Kirk was shot at Utah Valley University in September.
The NY Times reports Harpole is also suing Mitch Snow, a retired Army sergeant who appeared on Owens’s podcast and claimed he witnessed the alleged secret meeting.
In the 69-page lawsuit, Harpole alleges that Owens engaged in a “coordinated and deliberate campaign designed to defame” him. He denies any involvement in any assassination plot and describes Owens as a “conspiracy theorist” with a “pattern of seeking public attention and media exposure.”
The lawsuit centers on Owens’s public statements suggesting Harpole’s involvement in the September incident.
Owens responded to the suit on her daily podcast Thursday evening, calling the allegations “insane” and denying any wrongdoing. “I’ve only ever been interested in getting to the truth of what happened to Charlie Kirk,” she said.
A spokesman for Owens said she had no further comment beyond her podcast remarks. Snow did not immediately respond to a request for comment.