This situation has been made significantly worse for Kirk by Brian being implicated and being on staff (and having been promoted to OC). If the early reports had been about Doyle and any other assistant he could have just removed them/put them on leave and said we need to do better. But he can't/won't do that with Brian so Kirk has gotten pulled in more and more as this has stretched on. In crisis management you have to get ahead of it to limit damage.