The judge in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse has banned MSNBC from the court over allegations a producer tried to follow jurors.
Judge Bruce Schroeder said Thursday he received a report from the Kenosha Police Department that police pulled over a person identifying themselves as an MSNBC producer for running a red light the night before, and the producer claimed "he had been instructed" to "follow the jury bus." The matter is still under investigation, but Schroeder said he was banning anyone from MSNBC from the building for the rest of the trial.
"This is a very serious matter, and I don't know what the ultimate truth of it is," he said. "But absolutely it would go without much thinking that someone who is following the jury bus, that is [an] extremely serious matter and will be referred to the proper authorities for further action."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The jury in the Rittenhouse trial is currently in its third day of deliberations. Jurors are being transported in a "sealed bus" with the windows covered, Schroeder explained. The Kenosha Police Department tweeted that police suspect the person they pulled over "was trying to photograph jurors." A spokesperson for NBC News told CNN the person was a freelancer for the network but denied he was trying to take photographs of the jurors or contact them.
"While the traffic violation took place near the jury van, the freelancer never contacted or intended to contact the jurors during deliberations, and never photographed or intended to photograph them," the NBC spokesperson said. "We regret the incident and will fully cooperate with the authorities on any investigation."
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.