BREAKING: New Report Alleges There Was a Plot To…

A new threat assessment report has drawn a direct line between rising anti-Christian extremism online and an alleged plot to kill Erika Kirk, the widow of assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk, raising fresh alarm about a climate researchers are now calling an emerging “assassination culture” targeting prominent figures on the right.

The report, produced by the Network Contagion Research Institute, examines the case of Jacob Wenske, a 26 year old Texas man charged in late May with making a terroristic threat after he allegedly plotted to bomb a Turning Point USA event in San Antonio where Kirk, now the organization’s CEO, was scheduled to deliver the keynote address.

According to an arrest warrant obtained by investigators, Wenske, who worked as a valet driver, sent an email directly to Turning Point USA in which he stated his intention to target Kirk along with other speakers he described as “Christian nationalists.” The email reportedly went further, with Wenske writing that America would “live on” without those he labeled as such, a phrase prosecutors say reflects clear intent rather than idle venting.

Court records show Wenske did not limit his alleged threats to a single message. Investigators say he also posted repeatedly on social media in the weeks leading up to the planned summit, including a chilling line stating he knew exactly where to plant a bomb, and a separate post suggesting he hoped to get close to Kirk’s security detail by posing as a valet for her motorcade.

Bexar County prosecutors ultimately charged Wenske with two felony counts of making a terroristic threat causing public fear. A judge set his combined bail at 120,000 dollars. Turning Point USA confirmed the threats were taken seriously, crediting the San Antonio Police Department and the FBI for what the organization called a rapid response that led to Wenske’s arrest before the summit began.

Kirk ultimately proceeded with her scheduled appearance at the Turning Point USA Women’s Leadership Summit, joined by a roster of prominent conservative women including Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, and Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The organization said the event included enhanced, multi layered security measures designed to protect attendees, speakers, and staff.

The Network Contagion Research Institute’s new analysis goes beyond the specifics of the Wenske case to examine what its researchers describe as a broader and increasingly dangerous online “permission structure” that primes individuals to view politically motivated violence as acceptable or even justified. Researchers say this dynamic has become especially pronounced when the target is a prominent Christian or conservative figure.

Travis Hawley, a cyber threat and open source intelligence analyst at the institute, said the country is experiencing what he called a massive influx of foreign malign influence shaping the broader Western information environment, particularly through social media platforms. Hawley argued that a person’s daily digital diet now plays an outsized role in shaping how they view their own country, their values, and their history.

Hawley also pointed to specific foreign actors and wealthy individuals he said are actively working to accelerate division and unrest inside Western democracies, citing Neville Roy Singham, a businessman with ties to China who has drawn scrutiny in past congressional inquiries into the funding of left-wing activist networks.

Hawley said the goal of such influence operations is to exploit ideological fault lines, whether Marxist, Islamist, or broadly anti-Western, in order to weaken the country from within.

The report’s release comes amid what researchers describe as a historic surge in threats against political and public figures more broadly. United States Capitol Police data cited in the report shows a 58 percent increase in threats against members of Congress between 2024 and 2025 alone, with overall threat volume nearly doubling since 2020.

The institute’s researchers also referenced an earlier 2025 study in which they surveyed more than 1,200 American adults and found that 38 percent considered it at least somewhat justified to assassinate President Trump, with that figure climbing to roughly 55 percent among respondents who identified as left of center.

Charlie Kirk himself cited that earlier study publicly, attributing the climate of violence to what he called left wing protest culture, in a social media post made roughly five months before his own assassination.

Charlie Kirk was shot and killed on September 10, 2025, while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Tyler Robinson has been charged with capital murder in connection with the killing and faces a possible death sentence if convicted. FBI Director Kash Patel has said Robinson confessed to the shooting in a chatroom on the platform Discord, prompting renewed calls from members of Congress for greater scrutiny of how the platform may contribute to the radicalization of isolated young users.

The new report also draws a parallel to the case of Luigi Mangione, the man charged in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Mangione’s legal defense fund has collected more than 1.5 million dollars in donations, and supporters have regularly appeared at his courthouse hearings to express solidarity, a pattern researchers say illustrates how some segments of the public have come to romanticize politically motivated violence rather than universally condemn it.

Erika Kirk has remained a visible and outspoken figure since her husband’s death, taking over leadership of Turning Point USA and using public appearances to call for an end to political violence in America. She has also faced a wave of online harassment and criticism from some corners of the internet even as she has continued to lead the organization her husband built.

Researchers caution that the Wenske case, while serious, represents just one data point within a much larger and growing pattern of threats facing conservative and Christian aligned public figures. The institute’s broader finding is that online radicalization pipelines, often operating with little moderation across encrypted or loosely regulated platforms, are increasingly translating digital rage into real world plots with specific targets, dates, and locations.

Law enforcement officials have not publicly indicated whether Wenske acted entirely alone or whether his alleged plan intersected with any broader online network similar to the kind described in the institute’s report. The case remains in the pretrial stage in Bexar County.

The report’s authors argue that addressing the underlying permission structure driving these threats will require more than individual prosecutions, calling for greater accountability from social media platforms and renewed public condemnation of political violence across the ideological spectrum, regardless of which side of the aisle a given target happens to sit on.

For Turning Point USA, the Wenske case represents the second serious security threat the organization has faced within roughly a year, following the assassination of its founder. The organization has said it continues working closely with federal and local law enforcement on threat assessment for all of its public events going forward.