Billionaire investor Bill Ackman publicly denied accusations that he orchestrated an “intervention” to pressure Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk over his views on Israel, calling the claims “totally false” and saying he never threatened or blackmailed Kirk.
Ackman posted a lengthy message on X on Tuesday responding to comments by political commentator Candace Owens and to a report in the outlet Grayzone alleging that Ackman and pro-Israel operatives confronted Kirk at a Hamptons event a month before Kirk was fatally shot. Ackman wrote that “at no time have I ever threatened Charlie Kirk, Turning Point or anyone associated with him” and that he had “never blackmailed anyone, let alone Charlie Kirk.”
Owens said on her podcast that Kirk had faced an “increasing amount of pressure” from pro-Israel groups and donors and alleged an intervention in which threats were made. Her comments cited a Grayzone piece by Max Blumenthal that quoted an attendee who described a tense meeting in which Natasha Hausdorff of UK Lawyers for Israel “screaming” at Kirk and alleged that Ackman pressed Kirk to rescind an invitation to Tucker Carlson and presented a list of perceived “offenses” against Israel. The Grayzone article included accounts saying Kirk left feeling subjected to what some described as blackmail.
Ackman disputed those accounts, writing that he had “never offered Charlie or Turning Point any money in an attempt to influence Charlie’s opinion on anything.” He described his interactions with Kirk as “extremely cordial, albeit limited,” adding that Kirk had told him on a Zoom call earlier this year that “young conservatives were getting tired of defending Israel.” Ackman said he was impressed by Kirk and lamented that he “will sadly never see him again.”
Kirk was fatally shot last week during a Turning Point event at a university in Utah. Authorities arrested 22-year-old Tyler Robinson of Utah in connection with the killing. The shooting has prompted widespread online speculation, including conspiracy posts that tied Kirk’s killing to Israel; a recent Anti-Defamation League report found more than 10,000 posts on X linking the killing to Israel despite no evidence to support such a connection.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly mourned Kirk after the shooting, calling him a “lion-hearted friend of Israel.” The Grayzone report and Owens’ podcast prompted renewed debate online about the role of donors, activists and foreign governments in private discussions with American conservative figures, but Ackman’s statements directly refute the specific allegations of threats and blackmail.
Ackman’s response to Owens and the Grayzone accounts emphasized that he did not organize any effort to coerce or financially influence Kirk’s views. He said the description of the Hamptons gathering as an intervention was a slanderous mischaracterization and insisted he had no role in any attempted suppression of dissenting views on Israel.
The New York Post has sought comment from Turning Point USA, the Israeli government and Natasha Hausdorff. Grayzone’s reporting and Owens’ statements remain part of ongoing public discussion about the pressures facing conservative activists over Israel-related positions and about the broader online response to Kirk’s killing.
Kirk had expressed frustration in public comments over pressure and scrutiny about his views, including criticism he received for allowing a critic of Israel, comedian Dave Smith, to appear at a recent Turning Point student summit. Those tensions have fueled online theories after his death, but law enforcement and watchdog groups have cautioned against drawing unsubstantiated links to any foreign government or group.
Ackman’s denial does not resolve the differing accounts of the Hamptons meeting, and the matter has become another flashpoint in the polarized debate over free speech, donor influence and foreign policy inside the conservative movement.