Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Charlie Kirk’s killer is still at large: “The FBI today asked the public for help in identifying a person of interest in the shooting and released photos. It is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the identification and arrest of the individual(s) involved.”
* In related news: “Hopes for the fast capture of the person who fatally shot the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in Utah evaporated on Wednesday when Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, announced that the authorities had released a man he had described as a central subject of a multiagency manhunt.”
* It’s also worth noting that Patel, just a few weeks ago, fired the highly regarded head of the FBI field office Salt Lake City for reasons that have not yet been explained.
* Wednesday’s other school shooting: “The 16-year-old who shot and wounded two students at his high school in Evergreen, Colorado, before turning the gun on himself was ‘radicalized by an extremist network,’ the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday.”
* Lockdowns: “At least five historically Black colleges locked down campuses, canceled classes or ordered students to shelter in place after receiving ‘credible threats’ of violence on Thursday. Many of the precautionary measures are no longer in place. Alabama State University, Clark Atlanta College, Hampton University, Southern University and Virginia State University were among those impacted.”
* In D.C.: “U.S. Capitol Police searched Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters on Capitol Hill on Thursday after a bomb threat was received and then found to be ‘not credible,’ the party said.”
* It’s tough to avoid the conclusion that the administration lied in this case: “Lawyers from the Justice Department on Wednesday abandoned a claim they had made in court as they sought to deport dozens of unaccompanied Guatemalan children over a holiday weekend: that they were doing so at the behest of the children’s parents. In federal court in Washington, government lawyers conceded that they had no evidence to support the contention that the children or their families had hoped to reunite in Guatemala, a claim that had been repeated by senior Trump administration officials last week.” * A U.S. citizen detained by ICE for three days tells his story: “George Retes is a 25-year-old U.S. Army veteran who served a tour in Iraq. On July 10, while on his way to work as a security guard at a Southern California cannabis farm, he was detained by federal immigration agents, despite telling them that he is an American citizen and that his wallet and identification were in his nearby car, Retes told me. While arresting him, the agents knelt on his back and his neck, he said, making it difficult for him to breathe. Held in a jail cell for three days and nights, he was not allowed to make a phone call, see an attorney, appear before a judge, or take a shower to wash off pepper spray and tear gas that the agents had used, according to the Institute for Justice, a public-interest law firm that is representing Retes.” * An important diplomatic shake-up: “Britain’s ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, was fired Thursday after new revelations about his association with Jeffrey Epstein were revealed. Prime Minister Keir Starmer asked his foreign ministry to withdraw Mandelson, saying that newly released emails show that the extent of his relationship with the late convicted sex offender was greater than previously known.” See you tomorrow.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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