Man jailed over Charlie Kirk post wins $835,000 settlement

A former cop who was jailed over a social media post he made in the wake of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk's assassination has won a major payout.

61-year-old Larry Bushart was kept behind bars for 37 days after a Tennessee sheriff took umbrage with a meme shared by the retiree, pointing out the hypocritical reaction to Kirk's death from those who otherwise minimise gun violence.

On Wednesday, Bushart's lawyers revealed that the county would be paying their client a whopping $835,000 for his month and a half behind bars over a Facebook post that they found threatening.

The retired law enforcement officer has celebrated the restoration of his first amendment free speech rights, but pointed out that the heavy handed reactionary policing had forced him to miss the birth of his granddaughter, as well as costing him his post-retirement side hustle.

Charlie Kirk's assassination in September caused a wave of grief and fury across the country (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images)

He filed a federal 'unlawful incarceration' lawsuit against Perry County, Tennessee, in December, 2025, just a few weeks after he was eventually freed over the memes he had been sharing in the aftermath of Kirk's shooting, September 10.

Many MAGA-aligned social media users went into a cancellation frenzy in the days and weeks that followed, attempting to get anyone who made jokes about the firebrand's death removed from their employment and shamed in public.

While this may be an understandable reaction to the 31-year-old commentator's public slaying, the protections afforded to ill-advised and even offensive language by the first amendment is well established, with an exception for encouraging others to commit violent acts.

And yet, Bushart found himself under lock and key for sharing memes that fell well under this relatively high bar for criminal speech. Even more ridiculously, he was quoting President Trump himself in the offending post.

It would be fair to say that most of the reaction to Kirk's death was... strange (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

"We have to get over it," the meme stated, quoting Trump's response to a fatal shooting in Perry County, Iowa, where a student killed a fellow pupil and a teacher before taking his own life. "This seems relevant today..." Bushart wrote as he shared the image.

But Tennessee's Perry County sheriff, Nick Weems, described these posts as 'hate memes', even telling a local paper: “Investigators believe Bushart was fully aware of the fear his post would cause and intentionally sought to create hysteria within the community.”

The retired cop's bail had even been set at an eye-watering $2 million, all over the social media post, as the febrile national fury reached its peak in the weeks after the Kirk assassination.

“I am pleased my first amendment rights [to free speech] have been vindicated,” Bushart said in a statement announcing the settlement on Wednesday. “The people’s freedom to participate in civil discourse is crucial to a healthy democracy. I am looking forward to moving on and spending time with my family.”

“No one should be hauled off to jail in the dark of night over a harmless meme just because the authorities disagree with its message,” Adam Steinbaugh, a senior attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression told the New York Times.

He added: "We’re pleased that Larry has been compensated for this injustice, but local law enforcement never should have forced him to endure this ordeal in the first place.”