Man Arrested for Facebook Post About Charlie Kirk

The man arrested for a Facebook post about Charlie Kirk is Larry Bushart, a 61-year-old retired Tennessee police officer who spent 37 days in a Perry County jail on a $2 million bond after sharing a political meme in the days following Kirk’s killing. The felony charge against him was dropped on October 29, 2025, and in May 2026 he settled a federal civil rights lawsuit against Perry County and its sheriff for $835,000.¹

What Bushart Posted

Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old co-founder of Turning Point USA, was fatally shot on September 10, 2025 while speaking at an outdoor event at Utah Valley University.² About ten days later, Bushart shared a meme on Facebook. It showed a photograph of President Donald Trump, the caption “This seems relevant today…,” and a partial Trump quote: “We have to get over it.” The quoted words came from a 2024 condolence message Trump had delivered after a school shooting at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa.³ He also shared posts accusing Turning Point USA of “perpetrating hate.”⁴

The Felony Arrest and $2 Million Bond

Perry County Sheriff Nick Weems and county investigator Jason Morrow obtained an arrest warrant charging Bushart with “threatening mass violence at a school,” a felony under Tennessee law.¹ Weems said residents of Perry County, Tennessee were alarmed because a local school shared a name with the Iowa school referenced in the meme, and claimed “investigators believe Bushart was fully aware of the fear his post would cause and intentionally sought to create hysteria within the community.”³

Bushart was arrested at his home. A local magistrate set bond at $2 million, which he could not pay, and he remained jailed for 37 days.⁵ He lost the post-retirement job he had taken after leaving law enforcement.⁶

How the Charges Were Dropped

The case drew national coverage. Phil Williams, an investigative reporter for Nashville’s NewsChannel 5, interviewed Sheriff Weems on camera. Weems acknowledged that his office knew the meme was already circulating online and clearly referenced the Iowa shooting, not the Tennessee school. Asked whether investigators knew it was not an actual threat, Weems answered: “We knew.”⁷ That context had been omitted from the warrant application.⁸

Bushart’s attorney was told shortly after the interview that his client would be released within 30 minutes.⁷ District Attorney General Hans L. Schwendimann declined to prosecute, and the felony was formally dismissed on October 29, 2025.⁹ Neither the sheriff nor the district attorney publicly explained the dismissal.¹⁰

The $835,000 Settlement

In December 2025, Bushart filed a federal civil rights suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and the firm Phillips & Phillips, PLLC.¹¹ Larry Bushart v. Perry County named the county, Sheriff Weems, and investigator Morrow as defendants, and alleged violations of his First Amendment free speech rights and his Fourth Amendment protections against wrongful arrest, prosecution, and incarceration.³

A trial had been set for July 2026 in Memphis. On May 20, 2026, the parties announced an $835,000 settlement, ending the case before it reached a jury.¹

Was the Post Protected Speech?

Under First Amendment law, speech can be criminally punished as a “true threat” only if it carries the believability of an actual threat, a line federal courts have drawn in similar social media prosecutions. The sheriff’s on-camera admission that his office knew Bushart’s meme was not an actual threat made that threshold difficult for the county to defend, and FIRE framed the settlement as confirming that posting political opinions online is constitutionally protected and that officials who jail people for it can be held accountable.⁸

1
PBS NewsHour. Tennessee Man Jailed Over Charlie Kirk Social Media Comments Wins $835,000 Settlement
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PBS NewsHour. Turning Point USA Co-Founder Charlie Kirk Shot at Utah College Event
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BBC News. Tennessee Man Jailed Over Charlie Kirk Social Media Meme Wins Settlement
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The New York Times. Tennessee Man Jailed Over Charlie Kirk Facebook Meme Reaches Settlement
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WKRN. Larry Bushart Settlement Over Charlie Kirk Meme
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CNN. Charlie Kirk Shooting Larry Bushart Settlement
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NewsChannel 5. Phil Williams: Freeing a Wrongly Accused Person Is One of the Best Imaginable Parts of the Job
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FIRE. Victory: Tennessee Man Jailed 37 Days for Trump Meme Wins $835,000 Settlement
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The Tennessean. Larry Bushart Arrest Charlie Kirk Memes Charges Dropped
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First Amendment Center at MTSU. Felony Charge Dropped After Man Spends Month in Tennessee Jail for Charlie Kirk Post
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FIRE. Larry Bushart v. Perry County