MSNBC Barred From Rittenhouse Trial After Freelancer Caught Tailing Jurors

The trial of teenager Kyle Rittenhouse for shooting three men — two fatally — in what he insists was self-defence has become the centre of a nationwide media circus, with public opinion polarised between his supporters and those who demand he be jailed for murder.

MSNBC has been sensationally barred from the Kenosha County courthouse where Kyle Rittenhouse is on trial after a TV producer was discovered following the jurors.

Judge Bruce Schroeder banned the national TV news network from the building on Thursday morning for the remainder of the trial after receiving a report from local police.

The judge said that on Wednesday evening officers stopped a man identifying himself as James J. Morrison after he ran a red light, while he was trying to follow the blacked-out bus carrying the jurors between from the courthouse to their accommodation, at a distance of about a block.

The man said he had been asked to do so by NBC producer Irene Byon in New York. He was handed a traffic violation ticket.

"No one from MSNBC news will be permitted in this building," Schroeder said. "This is an extremely serious matter and will be referred to the proper authorities."

In a statement later, NBC News admitted its role in the incident, saying the driver stopped by police was a "freelancer" and not a salaried member of its staff.

"Last night, a freelancer received a traffic citation," the network said in a statement "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. We regret the incident and will fully cooperate with the authorities on any investigation."

The identity of the 12 primary members of the jury and the six reserve jurors has been closely guarded during the highly-politicised and controversial trial.

Earlier in the trial, a man was detained by police after he was seen filming the jurors on his mobile phone, but was released after he assured them he had deleted the files. Intimidating jurors or interfering with their work is a crime in the US.

Judge Schroeder says the reporter who was taken into custody was James J Morrison and he claimed to be working for Irene Byon of NBC in New York

On LinkedIn, there is an Irene Byon who lists herself as an NBC producer in New York

— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) November 18, 2021

Court tv reporter says he “can’t think of a nicer guy” “who was just doing his job” - “instructed by someone higher up” LOL

— Matt Christiansen (@MLChristiansen) November 18, 2021

I’m just relieved to learn Morrison is a very nice jury tamperer lol @CourtTV

— Matt Christiansen (@MLChristiansen) November 18, 2021

The jury has been locked in deliberation since Tuesday on whether Rittenhouse was justified in shooting three men who chased and attacked him at a riot in Kenosha last August, killing two and injuring the third.

The youth was 17 years old at the time but had traveled to his father's hometown with a group of adults to defend local businesses from looters and arsonists.

'Hocus Pocus Out-of-Focus'

Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger's prosecution case has come to hinge on a single computer-enhanced still of an aerial drone video his team claimed was left on their doorstep by an unknown person after the trail had already begun.

In his summing-up on Monday, defence attorney Mark Richards called it "hocus pocus out-of-focus" evidence.

Binger claimed the blurred image shows the right-handed Rittenhouse raising his AR-15 rifle to his left shoulder, moments before rioter Joshua Ziminski fired a shot from his handgun and Joseph Rosenbaum, a convicted child molester, began chasing the teenager across a car dealership forecourt.

Rittenhouse fatally shot Rosenbaum four times at close range in the space of three-quarters of a second, with one of those shots proving fatal. A forensic witness said powder burns on Rosenbaum's arm showed he had seized the barrel of the youth's rifle.

The defence team has twice filed motions for a mistrial. The first was after Binger defied Schroeder's rulings and tried to introduce evidence ruled inadmissible while cross-examining Rittenhouse.

The second occasion was on Wednesday when the jury asked to review the key video. The defence protested that Binger's assistant Jim Kraus had failed to disclose evidence as he had sent them a lower-resolution version of the video, which had a very different file name to the one presented in court.

Kraus bizarrely claimed that it was because the defence attorneys were using Android phones and he had sent the file from his Apple iPhone. The defence countered that the file was sent via an email that was opened and downloaded on a laptop computer.

Media Circus

The trial has received enormous media attention, with rival groups of protesters gathering daily outside the court building.

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers has put 500 National Guard troops on standby against the possibility of fresh rioting if Rittenhouse is acquitted.

Schroeder commented on Wednesday that he was under attack in the media — as numerous netizens have accused him of bias towards the defendant or even being a secret white supremacist.

Even his choice of mobile phone ringtone — the song God Bless the U.S.A. by Country and Western artist Lee Greenwood — has excited comment.

Sputnik reached out to MSNBC for a comment on the incident.