September 13 2025, 08:15 
Anti-trans podcaster Steven Crowder claims his company has been subpoenaed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) after he shared early, now-discredited details about the investigation into the shooting death of conservative activist and Trump ally Charlie Kirk earlier this week.
In a September 11 X post, Crowder claimed to have received an email from an ATF officer that included a screenshot of an internal message describing a weapon and bullet cartridges found near the Utah Valley State University campus, where Kirk was shot and killed at a speaking event on Wednesday. Crowder included the screenshot and a transcription of the message in his post.
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Anti-gay messages found engraved on Charlie Kirk murder suspect’s bullet casings
“All cartridges have engraved wording on them, expressing transgender and anti-fascist ideology,” the message read.
EXCLUSIVE: This morning my team received an e-mail from officer at ATF.
— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) September 11, 2025
The email included a screen shot from what appears to be an internal message describing a weapon and cartridges located by an ATF and other law enforcement near the scene of the Charlie Kirk shooting at… pic.twitter.com/UKtOUPY5DC
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On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal appeared to verify the existence of the message posted by Crowder and the alleged engravings on the bullet casings. However, the paper later updated its reporting, describing the message as an “early bulletin circulated widely among law enforcement officials.” The paper noted that Justice Department officials had cautioned against drawing conclusions from the internal report, explaining that the bulletin may not accurately reflect the messages on the cartridges.
Similarly, the New York Times reported Thursday that “a senior law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation cautioned that the report had not been verified by A.T.F. analysts, did not match other summaries of the evidence and might turn out to have been misread or misinterpreted.”
Despite officials’ warnings not to jump to conclusions, conservative media personality Megyn Kelly did just that, reposting the initial WSJ report in a Thursday X post claiming that Crowder “was right.”
“‘Trans & anti-fascist’ apparent motivation in Charlie’s murder,” Kelly wrote. “IT IS BEYOND TIME TO STOP CODDLING/PERPETUATING THE SPREAD OF THIS DANGEROUS IDEOLOGY.”
Later on Thursday, Crowder posted that he had “just received word that my company is being subpoenaed by the ATF. No details yet.”
Just received word that my company is being subpoenaed by the ATF. No details yet. https://t.co/ProSs4KrBa
— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) September 11, 2025
As has been widely reported, on Friday morning, the Utah Department of Public Safety and the FBI confirmed the arrest of a suspect in Kirk’s death, identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson. According to NBC News, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox confirmed at a press conference that the arrest came after a friend of Robinson’s family contacted authorities, indicating that Robinson had confessed to the murder.
“Investigators interviewed a family member of Robinson who stated that Robinson had become more political in recent years,” Cox said. “The family member referenced a recent incident in which Robinson came to dinner prior to September 10. And in the conversation with another family member, Robinson mentioned Charlie Kirk was coming to UVU. They talked about why they didn’t like him and the viewpoints that he had.”
According to CNN, Cox also said that inscriptions on three of the unfired casings found along with the alleged murder weapon read “Hey, fascist! Catch!” and included an “up arrow symbol, right arrow symbol and three down arrow symbols.” Other messages included “Notices bulges OWO what’s this?” and “If you read this, you are gay, LMAO.”
NBC News reports that Robinson did not indicate a political party affiliation on his last voter registration, dated July 13, 2021.
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