Judge in Rittenhouse Case Bans MSNBC from Building

BUCK: Still no verdict in the Rittenhouse trial as I’m speaking right now. Welcome back to the Clay and Buck show. We are watching it minute by minute here as the coverage continues. The defense is pushing for a mistrial over a drone video, not a mistrial with prejudice. I believe that was already filed as a motion previously.

This would just be a standard mistrial, which would mean the state could bring the entire case again should they choose to do so. But we haven’t gotten a ruling on that yet. At issue here is the prosecution had substantially higher resolution video from a drone, ’cause remember there were riots going on with Biden voters running around burning things down and attacking people in the streets.

Some of them armed — and illegally armed at that, I might note. But the video shows one of the shooting incidents — the first shooting incident, I believe — between Rittenhouse and one of his three assailants. And they didn’t have the clarity, meaning the prosecution did not give — and under Brady disclosure they have to give especially any exculpatory evidence to the other side.

They didn’t give the highest resolution footage they had. They made it grainier and less easy to see. So that’s what the mistrial is about, but there’s something else which Clay just brought to my attention in the break here. The judge has come out and said that no one from… Well, actually let’s just hear it from the judge, Clay, and react. Play it.

JUDGE BRUCE SCHROEDER: Last evening, a person who identified himself as James J. Morrison and who claimed that he was a producer with NBC News and played… for MSNBC under the supervision of someone named Irene Bayonne in New York for MSNBC. The police when they stopped him — ’cause he was following at a distance of a block and went through a red light — pulled him over and inquired of him what was going on, and he gave that information. And stated that he had been instructed by Ms. Bayonne in New York to follow the jury bus. The matter is under further investigation at this point. I have instructed that no one from MSNBC news will be permitted in this building for the duration of this trial.

BUCK: Wow. No one from MSNBC. The evil commie network getting a slapdown.

CLAY: Now, to be fair, the investigation is ongoing. This could be some guy who claimed that he was an MSNBC employee and maybe he’s not actually, just to put that out there. I don’t know. People say crazy things. But if the judge is taking the step of banning everyone from MSNBC… We talk about the pressure that the jury is under, Buck, and the fear that so many of these private people have that their photographs will go on the internet, that people will dox them if they find Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty. This is a direct assault upon the independence of the judiciary in this scenario and of this jury group.

BUCK: Can I just say, is it really beyond the pale to think that this could have happened?

CLAY: No. No.

BUCK: Think about what CNN did with the Russian collusion lies.

CLAY: No, it’s not beyond the pale.

BUCK: They harassed private citizens at their homes because they were, like, fooled by a Russia Facebook group or something, like complete lunatics at CNN.

CLAY: Buck, they showed up — different media groups did — at the front porches of people who donated small amounts of money to Kyle Rittenhouse’s defense fund to ask them why they had done it.

BUCK: Yeah, to shame them. It was disgusting.

CLAY: So we’ll see whether or not this is accurate, but this is a pretty blockbuster move by the judge.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

BUCK: Breaking news story about an NBC News, MSNBC (remember, NBC owns MSNBC; it’s the same company) employee who allegedly was trying to follow the Rittenhouse trial jurors in the bus taking them from the courthouse. We want to remind you of just exactly what happened. We got some updates on that one. This is big stuff because what’s going on with this jury right now?

Why is it taking so long to come to a verdict? Well, it’s because many of us — I am in this category; Clay is in this category — think that there is immense pressure that has intentionally been brought to bear by the left-wing apparatus in this country, of fear and coercion to undermine the jury’s ability to reach a verdict based on fact.

If they’re too terrified for their own safety and their family’s safety, how can this actually be a fair trial? Here is the judge. Just so we’re all very clear on what happened, here is the judge in this case, Bruce Schroeder, in the Kenosha courthouse saying, MSNBC, you are banned.

JUDGE BRUCE SCHROEDER: Last evening, a person who identified himself as James J. Morrison and who claimed that he was a producer with NBC News and played… for MSNBC under the supervision of someone named Irene Bayonne in New York for MSNBC. The police when they stopped him — ’cause he was following at a distance of a block and went through a red light — pulled him over and inquired of him what was going on, and he gave that information. And stated that he had been instructed by Ms. Bayonne in New York to follow the jury bus. The matter is under further investigation at this point. I have instructed that no one from MSNBC news will be permitted in this building for the duration of this trial.

BUCK: Can I just say, Clay, the officers pulled the car over, according to Judge Schroeder — this is from the New York Times — and the driver said he was a producer working with MSNBC, and that someone who worked for the network in New York had instructed him to follow the jurors. That is the quote.

CLAY: Buck, I am just… This is next level. This is next-level jury intimidation. Let’s break this down, okay? The judge here has already wanted to go full-on mistrial for a variety of reasons. But this goes to the heart of what we have been talking about, why you and I both believe we’re in the middle of day three of jury deliberation, because the evidence here is quite clear that Kyle Rittenhouse had, based on video…

It’s not like we’re just analyzing what people said. Based on video, in connection with testimony, he had the ability to use self-defense in this case. The jury, to me, is terrified of being doxed, of being outed, of being a target of the left-wing/woke mob which has decided that Kyle Rittenhouse is an evil wrongdoer; a racist; a school shooter; an insidious, awful human being.

That’s their narrative. This is unbelievable to me that you would get caught… MSNBC is trying to get all the information on these jurors that they can. Why are they doing this? Let me take a step back. I think the reason why they’re doing this is so whenever a verdict is reached or if it’s a hung jury, that they have the ability to try to get the jurors to tell them about what went on in deliberations.

The secondary part of this is so that they can identify who these jurors are. Can you imagine being on this jury right now? You’re under a high-stress environment already. You are being driven away from the courthouse. And there is a car in hot pursuit filled with someone who is reportedly filming you attempting to identify you, figure out who you are. And you’re supposed to be able to render justice without worrying about you and your family becoming targets? This is so infuriating to me, Buck.

BUCK: There’s an additional level here, too, for the jury pool that I’m sure is in their mind, and it’s they know that they’re not gonna be able to count on… They cannot count… Let’s say they reach a not-guilty verdict, which right now for a lot of people, it’s feeling like hung jury is where we’re heading right now for a lot of people.

CLAY: That’s what I would bet on right now, Buck. If you were to set odds of what’s going on here, based on us now in the third day of this case, I would bet on a hung jury, which means that they can’t reach a unanimous verdict. I would bet on nine to three, eight to four, 10 to two, maybe even 11 to one people wanting to vote not guilty.

But you can’t get a unanimous verdict right now and, therefore, you have a hung jury. They say we can’t… Nobody’s changing their minds. We debated this ad infinitum’ nobody’s changing their mind. And then it would get thrown back on the judge, who doesn’t seem to want to rule for a mistrial with prejudice, which would end this case.

Now, he’s hoping that the jury renders the not-guilty verdict, I think, based on him having sat there. I think he recognizes this should be a not-guilty verdict, and then the onus would be on this judge to decide, “Are you going to mistrial this with prejudice?”

BUCK: If he’s got a hung jury, he has to, right?

CLAY: A hung jury would just mean that they would have the right to come back.

BUCK: Right. But that means the judge declares…? It is a mistrial if it’s a hung jury, right?

CLAY: Yeah, but I’m saying the “mistrial with prejudice” ends the case. Is he willing to render this, based on all the craziness that’s been going on, a mistrial with prejudice, which would then be appealed?

BUCK: Right. That’s the additional level. So essentially, we get to the issue, “Are we gonna have this whole thing play out again?” which seems like if we’re at that stage, a distinct possibility. But back to the threat against the jurors here, which we’re all… By the way, there’s lots of threats about the judge. Why aren’t you hearing more about that? There are lots of threats against this judge, death threats against him and his family. This is so interesting when you hear about that in the media and when you don’t.

CLAY: Oh, of course.

BUCK: Almost like the psychotic left is going completely insane because they still act like Rittenhouse is a racist. He shot three white criminals, but somehow this is a racist thing. Rittenhouse, this is really ultimately… I still believe it’s just you’re not allowed to stand up against the left wing mob. They cannot allow people to think when the left wants to riot, armed citizens can say, “Not on my block, not today.”

But, Clay, the people that are targeted in this way who are on this jury — and now we know there’s a journalist that’s following them and there is clearly stuff going on. There’s been efforts to intimidate them from the very beginning as soon as they were on the jury. They can’t even count on the corporate media to come to their aid in terms of condemning.

The media, if they voted for acquittal and then were targeted, they know, just says, “Well, they kind of voted the wrong way.” They don’t even have the people who are supposed to be supportive of the system and believe in justice and all that to catch their back because if you’re a Democrat and there’s an acquittal here, you’re going to say, “That was injustice and the people who were a part of it maybe have to face some of their own consequences.”

CLAY: They should be held accountable. That’s what this is about, and it’s about intimidation at its most basic level, and regardless of what your particular pertaining is on any case, the idea that a major media organization should be stalking effectively jurors like this and should be chasing them and running red lights and having the police necessitating, trying to figure out, “Hey, what kind of threat are these jurors under based on the behavior of this driver?”

And for NBC to not be able to deny it… By the way, some of these NBC journalists, Buck, have basically ended all of their social media profiles. So the people who were named by the judge in the Rittenhouse case, many of them are completely wiping clean now their social media accounts, which certainly doesn’t make you look any more innocent when you’re just trying to hide.

BUCK: So just so everyone’s clear also, I wanted to check to make sure. So if there’s a hung jury, there are two options. The judge can say, “Go back and don’t be a hung jury anymore,” but that doesn’t —

CLAY: It’s not ever gonna change, and then you get a mistrial.

BUCK: It is a mistrial. There are only two options: either mistrial or go back and don’t be a hung jury anymore.

CLAY: Yeah, and then what we’ve been debating whether the judge is willing to do is take that next step and say, “This is a mistrial with prejudice,” meaning this case can’t be brought anymore.

BUCK: But, no, it can because they can appeal it.

CLAY: Usually the trial court judge is granted great discretion by the appellate courts.

BUCK: Higher bar, the state would have a higher standard of restriking it.

CLAY: It’s a high standard to overall him. You’re right that that would potentially be appealed and stay in the courts, but it would be a massive win for Rittenhouse if the trial court judge said, “This is a mistrial with prejudice,” ’cause it would basically make the state have to overturn and prove that he had misruled in making that decision.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

CLAY: MSNBC is under fire for potentially chasing jurors and trying to intimidate them, potentially dox them down the line. Buck, George Floyd trial. What’s the reaction if Fox News is chasing the jurors on the George Floyd trial, the Derek Chauvin trial, and they are pulled over by police and banned from the courtroom because of potential jury intimidation?

BUCK: They’d burn stuff down. You’re actually… You’re talking about a certainty of riots — and, by the way, not the rioters, but the narrative would be that Fox or whoever followed them would be responsible for the riots.

CLAY: That’s right, and they would also argue every advertiser who spends any money with Fox News has to pull out. They don’t deserve to be carried as a cable network. I just want to contextualize you and everybody out there listening as you see the way the MSNBC’s egregious behavior is covered. Pretend that Fox News had done it during the Derek Chauvin trial, and think about the way that the media would cover it compared to how they’re gonna cover it with MSNBC.