Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday said the Justice Department was investigating an incident involving a Michigan Office Depot employee who refused to print flyers advertising a vigil for conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
“Businesses cannot discriminate. If you wanna go in and print posters with Charlie’s pictures on them for a vigil, you have to let them do that. We can prosecute you for that,” Bondi said during a Monday appearance on Fox News’ “Hannity.”
“I have Harmeet Dhillon right now in our Civil Rights unit looking at that immediately, that Office Depot had done that. We’re looking it up,” she continued.
Office Depot said last week they removed the employee responsible for denying the order placed by the Kalamazoo County Republican Party.
“The behavior displayed by our associate is completely unacceptable and insensitive, violates our company policies, and does not reflect the values we uphold at Office Depot,” the company said in a statement online.
“We sincerely apologize to the customer affected and to our community for this regrettable situation,” it continued.
Companies and federal agencies have been scouring the internet in search of vile comments related to Kirk’s killing.
MSNBC analyst Matthew Dowd was removed from his role at the network over his on air reaction to news of the shooting, while university professors and lawmakers have also faced repercussions for their statements tied to the shooting of the Turning Point USA co-founder.
However, some have argued that hate speech and other remarks are protected under the First Amendment and have slammed Bondi for suggesting otherwise.
“There should be social consequences for people who openly celebrate the murder of an innocent man,” author Matt Walsh wrote in a Monday statement on X.
“But there obviously shouldn’t be any legal repercussions for ‘hate speech,’ which is not even a valid or coherent concept. There is no law against saying hateful things, and there shouldn’t be.”
Conservative media personality Megyn Kelly also weighed in.
“Hate speech is not prosecutable in America (which is good). Pam Bondi knows this,” Kelly said in a Tuesday post on X.