Candace Owens Sued for Defamation Over Claims of Conspiracy to Assassinate Charlie Kirk

Some excerpts from the long Complaint in Harpole v. Owens (M.D. Tenn.), just filed today (of course, recall that these are all just accusations, not court findings):

Plaintiff Brian Harpole is a citizen and resident of Texas. He is the founder and head of Integrity Security Solutions, a private security firm. In or around 2018, Harpole began working for the late Charlie Kirk, with Integrity Solutions providing security for Turning Point USA and protective services for Kirk from 2022 to 2025. Integrity Solutions provided these services for Turning Point USA and Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025, where Kirk was fatally shot….

Shortly after the assassination, Owens began disseminating content asserting that Kirk was betrayed by individuals close to him, that the government orchestrated a cover-up of the assassination, that Turning Point USA was implicated in the event, and advancing numerous additional conspiracy theories suggesting that somebody other than Tyler Robinson was involved in the murder….

Since Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Owens has intentionally proliferated a campaign intended to impugn the reputation of Harpole. Without even a modicum of substantiated evidence, she has publicly accused Harpole and Integrity Solutions of foreknowledge, participation in, and cover-up of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, as well as professional unfitness and criminal negligence. Despite Owens admitting that she had viewed Harpole’s flight records, she continued to accuse him of attending a meeting at Fort Huachuca—based solely on unsubstantiated testimony from Defendant Snow. Furthermore, without any evidence that Harpole acted negligently or intentionally with regard to the assassination of Kirk, Owens spread conspiracy theories that he somehow and for some reason intended Kirk to die….

Between December 9, 2025, and December 28, 2025, Owens, through at least eight separate statements published on X and disseminated via her podcast, falsely and negligently, if not intentionally and with reckless disregard for the truth, alleged that Harpole attended a conspiracy meeting at Fort Huachuca on the day preceding Kirk’s assassination and colluded with the government in connection with that assassination. She therefore also accused him of conspiracy to commit murder, a criminal offense. These statements include, but are not limited to:

1. Owens’s December 9, 2025, podcast in which she falsely claimed that Mitch Snow, who she describes as “credible,” saw Plaintiff at Fort Huachuca on September 9, 2025, the day before the assassination and that “[w]hen an operation is being confirmed, you have these final meetings, and they involve all the higher-ups and you are trying to do this in a very isolated location where you know people are not going to accidentally happen upon you[.]”
2. Owen’s description of her December 9, 2025, podcast, reading, “After today, I do not know how this leads to anything other than a full confession from the government about their [sic] involvement in Charlie Kirk’s assassination”
3. Owens’s December 18, 2025, X post stating, “We bring you an EXPLOSIVE interview with what may be the lone eyewitness to a mysterious, top brass meeting which occurred on Fort Huachuca the day before Charlie’s assassination….”
4. Owens’s December 18, 2025, podcast in which she published Mitch Snow’s false account of seeing Plaintiff at Fort Huachuca and claimed to have evidence confirming his narrative.
5. Owens’s December 19, 2025, podcast in which she stated that she finds Defendant’s Snow’s narrative to be “compelling” because she was “given travel logs for Brian Harpole and it is entirely possible that Brian Harpole could have made it to that meeting.”
6. Owens’s December 22, 2025, X post in which she stated she viewed Plaintiff’s flight records and confirmed that they did not provide an alibi.
7. Owens’s December 23, 2025, X post “”Fort Huachuca Confirmed” which contains an unsubstantiated incident report.
8. Owens’s December 28, 2025, X post claiming that the Fort Huachuca story was legitimized by Plaintiff’s estranged son.

Between October 27, 2025, and the filing of this Complaint, Owens has also falsely and intentionally made at least five separate statements suggesting that Harpole had foreknowledge of the assassination and actively assisted in bringing it out. Owens is falsely accusing Harpole of criminal activity, up to and including murder. These statements include, but are not limited to:

1. Owens’s November 18, 2025, podcast in which she accuses Plaintiff of lying about drone availability, asking is “this how these assassinations happen?”, accuses Harpole of failing to secure the UVU rooftops, and statements that Harpole should be fired.
2. Owens’s November 19, 2025, podcast in which she again accuses Harpole of lying about drone availability.
3. Owens’s December 12, 2025, post to X where she states, “Brian Harpole has already been caught lying about what transpired on that day. Did he also lie about having placed a 911 call? Did no one from their team call 911 after Charlie was shot?”
4. Owens’s December 16, 2025, X post where she says Brian Harpole did not pack Kirk’s wound.
5. Owens’s January 8, 2026, statements that (i) “we have to revisit Brian Harpole’s story about how far in advance they typically plan security because someone has leaked me another glaring oddity in this security protocol; (ii) there was “no security plan in place” at Charis Bible College, claiming it odd that Harpole’s team planned Kirk’s security strategy for Utah Valley University two weeks in advance, but failed to contact the Chief of Police for Woodland, Colorado, to plan security for the Charis Bible College event (iii) “[t]hat’s what I mean when you lie a lot and when you’re planning things you’re not supposed to be planning. Yeah, as in the next day if you expected Charlie to make it to September 11th you would have been communicating about what he was doing um up at the Charis Bible College.” (iv) “Why didn’t Dan Flood and Brian Harpole and Turning Point USA’s security have any coordination with the police departments up in Colorado if this is what they normally do[?]; …

All of Owens’s statements are either false on their face or create a false meaning reasonably conveyed by the published words. They are not protected opinions, rhetorical hyperbole, or questions without defamatory implication. It is simply false that Harpole knew Charlie Kirk was going to die or was involved in the planning, commission, or alleged cover-up of the assassination…. In addition, or in the alternative, Owens acted with actual malice, in that Defendant knew the statements were false or acted with reckless disregard for their truth or falsity. This is because, Owens, inter alia,:

1. Knew Harpole’s plane tickets squarely placed him in Texas at the time of the alleged meeting at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
2. Acknowledged that Mitch Snow, and only Mitch Snow, claimed Harpole attending the alleged Fort Huachuca meeting.
3. Treated limited evidence, much of which is of questionable veracity, that Snow was at Fort Huachuca as evidence that Harpole was also there.
4. Knew, based on official reports, that the investigation had revealed that Tyler Robinson alone was responsible for the assassination, but insisted that Harpole was involved.
5. Ignored the thousands of comments pointing out gaps in her theory alleging Harpole’s involvement.
6. Ignored the blatant credibility issues with the “incident report,” and proliferated the narrative that Harpole was at Fort Huachuca while conceding that she could not verify whether the meeting happened, let alone whether Harpole was there, because she was not in attendance.
7. Was aware that even if security was not planned two weeks in advance, this does not translate to foreknowledge or complicity in assassination.
8. Knew and conceded that Harpole ran over to Kirk with Harpole’s medical bag to provide care after he was shot.

Owens intentionally ignored all documents and evidence contradicting her narrative and nevertheless chose to publish such statements. She additionally failed to investigate obvious doubts such as the authenticity of the incidence report….