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Did Tyler Robinson's father donate $1.5 million reward to Charlie Kirk's family? Here's the truth
Matt Robinson, who tipped the FBI about his son Tyler in Kirk’s shooting, won’t donate reward money to Kirk’s family—but such claims are false.
Matt Robinson, the father of Charlie Kirk's shooting suspect, Tyler Robinson, played a key role in his son's arrest. Matt Robinson tipped off the FBI on his son's identity after he recognized Tyler from the suspect photo the FBI released.
There was a huge reward for information leading to Tyler Robinson's arrest. As per CNN, the FBI announced a $100,000 reward, Starbucks and billionaire Alex Bruesewitz announced $25,000 each, while billionaire Bill Ackman pledged $1 million. There were additional rewards as well, potentially taking the amount close to $1.5 million.
But since Robinson was tipped off by his father, rumors about whether he would get the reward spread. One such rumor claimed that Matt Robinson has pledged to donate the $1.5 million reward to the family of Charlie Kirk.
But fact-checking website Snopes reported that neither Matt Robinson nor any source close to him said that he will donate the reward to Kirk's family. Thus, posts claiming such are outright false.
Where Did The Rumor Originate?
As reported by Snopes, the rumor that Matthew Robinson will donate the $1.5 million reward started with a Facebook account named Cowboys Fan Hub. While the donation bit was mentioned in the caption of the post, it also contained a photo of Kirk and his father with a fabricated quote from Matt Robinson.
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The supposed quote read: "This is what a father is supposed to do. My son wronged the Kirk family, and it's my responsibility to help him face that mistake. The money is enormous, but it's not meant for me. I want it to go to the Kirk family instead."
Amid a massive interest in news on Tyler Robinson, this false claim also spread like wildfire. It had thousands of shares at the time of this writing.
Bill Ackman Breaks Silence On Reward
While questions remained around the eligibility of Matt Robinson to receive the reward, billionaire Bill Ackman noted on X that Matt can get the bounty. He said in a post on X that "the rewards need to be paid even if the recipient is a crook or worse. The FBI and other parties who announced rewards did not make any statement on this issue.
Bill Ackman said: A number of people have reached out and/or posted expressing concern that Tyler Robinson’s father may collect a $1.2m reward for turning in his son, which inspires a few thoughts."
"First, in order for rewards to be effective in finding criminals, the rewards need to be paid even if the recipient is a crook or worse," he added. "That said, in this case, if Tyler’s father is found to have been involved or otherwise acted negligently in contributing to Charlie’s death, civil litigation or criminal prosecution will reverse any unjust compensation."
