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ST. GEORGE, Utah – After Charlie Kirk’s accused killer allegedly confessed in a Discord chat, legal experts say others in the group are unlikely to face charges unless investigators find proof of active involvement.
Suspect Tyler Robinson posted in a Discord group hours before his arrest, writing, “Hey guys, I have bad news for you all…It was me at UVU yesterday…I’m sorry for all of this.”
The FBI is reviewing the Discord chat where Robinson is believed to have posted.
On Monday, FBI Director Kash Patel said some people assume agents can access group chats instantly to see who was involved. In reality, he said, scores of users were in the room.
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“We have to go out there with search warrants so that if prosecutors want to later use this evidence, it’s not tainted by being illegally obtained,” Patel said. “We, the FBI, are running the investigation…on the Discord chat group. There are scores of individuals that are going to be spoken to.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., pressed Patel Tuesday on how the FBI was working to identify possible accomplices or people who may have encouraged Robinson.
“So, in terms of what we do for an interrogation perspective, we go and reach out to the family and community immediately. And we’ve conducted those investigations and interrogations with local law enforcement, and we’re continuing to do that because those closest to the suspect are going to hopefully know the most about the suspect and his beliefs and his ideology,” Patel said. “On top of that, unfortunately, it has been leaked, that there was a Discord chat. And for those unfamiliar with it, it’s a gaming chat room online that the suspect participated in.”
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“So, what we’re doing – and we’ve already done – is serve legal process, not just on Discord, so that the information we gathered is sustained and held in an evidentiary posture that we could use in prosecution should it be decided to do so. And we’re also going to be investigating anyone and everyone involved in that Discord chat,” Patel continued.
Hawley then asked about public reports suggesting the Discord thread had as many as 20 additional users.
“It’s a lot more than that, and we’re running them all down,” Patel said.
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Legal scholars say that simply seeing or ignoring a confession online is not, by itself, a crime.
“It’s not a crime to see people confessing to a crime. It’s not [a] crime to do nothing about that. You can see or hear someone say, ‘yes, I murdered someone,’ and just ignore it. It’s just not illegal as a general matter to do that,” said Eugene Volokh, Professor Emeritus at UCLA Law School and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford.
Former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy told “Fox and Friends” that chat users can only be prosecuted if they participated in or agreed to a scheme.
“Looking at these particular chats, it looks to me like…this is kind of after-the-fact where the guy admits to the crime and says in fact that he’s made arrangements to surrender,” he said.
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“So, it would be surprising to me if you looked at those people who were in the chats, as potential criminal defendants. I would be looking at them as witnesses that might help me, in terms of proving what this guy’s state of mind was in the days leading up to the murder,” McCarthy added.
He noted that in some cases, people who receive clear threats may be legally obligated to alert police. But he said that threshold hasn’t been met in this case.
Volokh added that the law requires something more than silence or passive presence in a chatroom.
“There’s got to be something beyond simply hearing the confession and simply doing nothing,” he said. “Simply praising the person’s crime, either in general or to the person, is not itself punishable, because it’s not soliciting any new crime. But if you say, ‘Here’s a list of other people you should kill,’ in principle, that might be solicitation of future crimes.
While Discord is a relatively new platform, Volokh noted that the law applies the same way it would to older forms of communication.
“The technology of communication to people is at least tens of thousands of years old, and the legal principles in American law are pretty much the same in this kind of situation, regardless of the technology,” he said.
Fox News has reached out to Discord regarding a Washington Post report that Robinson confessed to the Kirk shooting on Discord shortly before turning himself in, and the company said the reporting was accurate.
Discord confirmed Robinson’s account was on its platform but said he did not plan the attack there.
“During our investigation, Discord identified an account belonging to the suspect. We have not found or received any evidence that the suspect planned this incident on Discord or promoted violence on Discord,” a Discord spokesperson said. “The messages referenced in reporting about weapon retrieval and planning details were not Discord messages, and likely took place on a phone-number based messaging platform. We continue to work closely with the FBI and local authorities, and will continue to deliver prompt responses to their requests for assistance.”
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