00:03:27.680But the fact that it hasn't even come in, even with the redactions now being put on,
00:03:33.160Even with blocking of this coming in, it's something where it's incredibly frustrating that here we are three days in and we still don't have this evidence and only two days left in the hearing.
00:03:48.540I want to bring on our guest now, Dr. Wendy Patrick.
00:03:54.760I really feel for you having to sit there and listen to this now for three full days.
00:03:59.120And you're right, we're not there yet.
00:04:00.360well no and and look you know there's there's certain moments where look when i go to court
00:04:08.420i want to hear the evidence i want to hear what was collected i want to hear what the investigative
00:04:12.980went investigation went in and you know you'd hope that the court here in this case would then
00:04:18.680determine whether or not there's probable cause then there's the arraignment then you go to the
00:04:22.320actual trial okay but it just feels like we're not getting to that uh process because it seems
00:04:29.160like the defense keeps throwing up these roadblocks to whether or not evidence was even
00:04:34.720going to be allowed to be heard in open court. And something like the testimony, the direct
00:04:40.620testimony of the roommate and boyfriend of Tyler Robinson is obviously relevant in this case. And
00:04:48.400even that is still now being denied to us. And I just have to say, I'm very frustrated. I'm very
00:04:55.240frustrated. A completely frustrating day for you, for the Kirk family, for the for Erica Kirk's
00:05:02.060lawyer, as you heard expressed in court. They want transparency. They want this out there. I mean,
00:05:06.560this is the person who probably knew Tyler Robinson the best. I know him the best. He's
00:05:11.860the roommate. He's the lover. And we know he made a statement and we even know what the substance of
00:05:16.120that statement is. So we want to see it. We don't just want to hear about it and we don't want to
00:05:20.540see a redaction. We want to see it. Now, this is what the judge said. And this is very frustrating.
00:05:24.820The judge is really trying his best. So he made a record to balance constitutional rights of the defendant with transparency.
00:05:31.940And everybody in that courtroom wants transparency. But this is the problem that he is articulating.
00:05:37.240There's something in that transcript. There's something in the interview that apparently is so explosive or so unduly prejudicial is probably what the judge is going to say tomorrow that it can't be shown.
00:05:48.340It can't be shown to the public. It can't be shown even to a potential jury.
00:05:53.380Now, he hasn't made that ruling yet, but one thing they're all doing tonight is getting ready to re-argue this in court tomorrow.
00:06:00.460And I know you're going to be there. You're going to have a front row seat for it.
00:06:03.160The rest of us are waiting with bated breath to see this video, to hear about the substance of this.
00:06:10.060That's what we've been building up to for the last two days, laying other types of foundation.
00:06:15.260Now it's time to hear from the defendant's own mouth.
00:06:34.640It's very clear that he's quite capable and knows exactly what he's doing.
00:06:38.380He has successfully helped clients avoid the death penalty in the past.
00:06:45.260And potentially that could be what he's trying to do here, not just in, of course, able, you know, in the criminal case, but also at the appellate level.
00:06:57.400And, you know, going to the Constitution for everything, it really seems to me to be a case where, and I'll just say it, you know, my personal opinion was I felt that the state was much more assertive yesterday,
00:07:11.920was more willing to stand up for themselves,
00:07:15.980was much more willing to push the envelope when it came to the evidence saying,
00:07:21.200you know, we will not go into closed session.
00:07:26.160That was yesterday, whereas today it seemed like a different strategy from the state
00:07:30.700where they were being much more accommodating, much more passive.
00:07:34.220And, again, when you're dealing with evidence that is so crucial to the case,
00:07:39.160Like, obviously, as we all know, that Lance Twiggs and Tyler's relationship with him are right at the center of this case.
00:07:48.720To see the state not take on that more assertive role was just very frustrating.
00:07:53.920And of course, the defense used that to their advantage to really just get it blocked for yet another day.
00:08:00.860That's right. And part of the frustration from the prosecutor's standpoint, this is probably what they're talking about back at the office right now,
00:08:07.560is that it's one thing to maybe be more assertive when it comes to evidence like ballistics evidence,
00:08:13.340even DNA evidence, scientific evidence, video evidence.
00:08:17.180Those things are pretty much uncontroverted.
00:08:19.620I mean, you could argue the science, but it is what it is.
00:08:21.740And this evidence was captured and collected, and it's good circumstantial evidence.
00:08:25.960When it comes to statements made by a suspect, we're in a little bit different area.
00:08:31.020We're on thinner ice as a prosecution team.
00:08:34.400That could be, and I'm sure you'll hear more of this tomorrow, that could be why they're
00:08:38.320a little more nervous to make sure that the rulings are accurate.
00:08:41.240Not that they're not going to fight for it, but that they want to make sure they're very
00:08:44.620accurate about what they get into the evidence.
00:08:46.500Because if, God forbid, something came in that shouldn't have legally, if that's what
00:08:51.080a higher court decided, then what might happen is it would be reversed and would have to
00:08:56.640Can you imagine, Jack, you, the Kirk family, Erica, having to sit through this trial again?
00:09:02.140I'm not saying that's going to happen, but that's a concern of the prosecutor. It's a concern of the judge.
00:09:08.520That might be why this evidence is being treated a little differently by that team than a lot of the scientific evidence that was merely collected from the scene.
00:09:18.580So walk us through that. And we just have two minutes in this segment. But what makes the defendant's statements different?
00:09:25.620I mean, you know, looking at this as a layperson, if the defendant makes a statement, text messages, discord that reads to me like a confession, you would think from a common sense standpoint that that would be very critical evidence.
00:09:39.200It is. But I wonder what else is in there, because that's always the case is if you're talking about a confession to the police, it's a lot different than you're talking about a conversation with a lover, with a roommate.
00:09:50.180What I was wondering as I watched the hearing today is what else is on that tape?
00:09:55.780What else is there that might be so unduly prejudicial that the judge wants it redacted?
00:10:01.040I mean, we don't know what it is, and we would love to know what it is so we could better understand the why.
00:10:08.220Throughout the last couple of days, this has been referred to, and all of a sudden we've pulled the brakes.
00:10:13.460I hope we hear more about that tomorrow.
00:10:15.880I know both sides are briefing it, and the judge is going to be reading everything as well.
00:10:19.400And we're going to start out of the gate with it. Maybe we can get this resolved and finally get some of that transparency that everybody wants in the courtroom.
00:10:28.100And frankly, you know, both sides know that this is coming into evidence.
00:10:31.720I think it's right now at this stage in the game, what format and how much.
00:10:38.380Well, no, I think that's exactly right. And so we're going to be looking for that.
00:10:42.580We're going to be looking for so much more. We're going to take a quick break here on our coverage throughout a commercial.
00:10:47.820want to say thank you again to the team for being out here of course special thank you to allegiance
00:10:53.100gold by the way our partners over at allegiance gold protect with pozo.com they are providing
00:10:58.360our protection while we're here on the ground seeking justice for charlie kirk
00:11:03.160stop fighting no matter what we will achieve american greatness we are just getting started
00:11:33.160All right, folks, Jack Posovic back live here, Human Events Daily, Real America's Voice.
00:11:50.780We are, of course, working to push on this case.
00:11:55.760And I want to get up with our expert here, Dr. Wendy Patrick, who is walking us through all of this.
00:12:02.840And Dr. Wendy, you're exactly right when you say that the big issue, one of the big issues that could come up is, you know, should this be overturned on appeal or something happens on appeal that either the case gets thrown out, has to be retried or any number of pieces of this.
00:12:24.580And so walk us through the prosecution's, you know, sort of that overarching strategy, how they have to look far into the future at potential future risks that they're planning ahead for now.
00:12:38.920Yeah. And you're right, Jack. That is one thing about this hearing that really personalized it for me.
00:12:45.080I mean, I've been a prosecutor for almost 30 years, and I was thinking as I watched the argument, what I would be considering is whether or not the judge is feeling under a time pressure to make a decision, whether he's thinking to himself, you know, this is a probable cause hearing.
00:12:59.380I don't need to make the ruling deciding what, if any, redactions are necessary before this is played.
00:13:04.740He might be thinking if I release too much of the statement now, it might taint a potential future jury pool.
00:13:10.940you talk about looking to the future. What he might be thinking is between the prelim and the
00:13:15.820trial, there'll be ample opportunity for both sides to further brief the issue, to have hearings,
00:13:22.100to decide what's admissible. He may be thinking he doesn't want to scramble and make a ruling now.
00:13:27.140But Jack, on the other hand, I'm thinking, why are we scrambling? I mean, you no doubt know both
00:13:31.980sides have probably papered each other to death with objections, with motions, with whatever it
00:13:37.240is to make this admissible. But that might be one saving grace in maybe not seeing as much of it as
00:13:44.320we would like to tomorrow, but maybe left with the hope that we will see it in its entirety,
00:13:50.100and so will a jury if we get to trial. Well, I certainly agree on that, and that
00:13:58.840ultimately what we want is justice, right? Ultimately one is that. And I guess, though,
00:14:04.820for those of us who are out here who knew Charlie as well, that we do still want that transparency.
00:14:13.140There's still so much of that earnest yearning to see what other evidence is there that's been
00:14:20.800collected. And to be fair, they've released a lot of evidence this week. But it seems to me that the
00:14:28.180judge is really splitting the baby on almost every single one of these decisions. And so,
00:14:33.080So for example, we're getting only limited disclosures in court and what's being shown
00:14:38.480on that TV screen, I can see it in extremely high quality definition, but for folks at
00:14:45.200home who are recording it or getting over the live stream, it's not coming through as
00:14:49.620much and we don't even know if those exhibits are going to be later shown.
00:14:53.880And so I guess one of my other frustrations is I don't know if the transparency in this
00:15:01.200Yeah. And, you know, Jack, I feel that that sentiment as well. And I think part of it has to do with the contrast between how transparent Charlie Kirk was about everything he believed, all the dreams that he had. I interviewed him on my radio show last year. He's just such an exceptional man.
00:15:16.940And to say that somebody that assassinated him in broad daylight doesn't have the have doesn't isn't going to be subjected to the same standard of letting us know what he did, what he said, what he told his roommate about it is enormously frustrated.
00:15:30.640And it is that level of emotion that really has characterized this preliminary hearing both in and out of the courtroom.
00:15:36.720I mean, it's bad enough out here. I can't imagine how tense it is inside the courtroom for all of you that are sitting literally feet from the assassin, from the defendant.
00:15:46.940But the transparency question, let me be very clinical and legal about it, because a probable
00:15:52.880cause hearing legally only requires a very small showing, sort of a sampling of the type
00:15:59.120of evidence that's going to be admissible at trial, sometimes judges, and this one in
00:16:03.160particular, really narrows the scope of what might otherwise be admissible at a prelim.
00:16:08.580Because think about it, a case this high profile, whatever comes out at prelim is going to be
00:16:12.660all over the court of public opinion between now and trial. And we already know that this judge is
00:16:18.300taking into consideration, making sure nothing out there taints a jury pool. So that might be
00:16:24.060part of his thinking. But Jack, more importantly, it's also why we're frustrated at a probable cost
00:16:29.700hearing, given the narrower scope of the evidence that this judge is going to admit. And I think
00:16:35.260this video, whatever parts of it we see, falls into that category.
00:16:41.900No, I think that's right. And in fact, we are still going to get more information. We're told,
00:16:47.300by the way, in terms of the text messages, and we've seen quite a few amounts of text messages
00:16:53.060in various motions and filings, but we're including Discord messages, these group chat
00:16:58.720messages. We're also told, by the way, it came out in court, that there's going to be more text
00:17:04.180messages that have not yet been released. And of course, today, the one piece of actual evidence
00:17:10.560that we did get, probably the only thing that from my perspective, that transparency publication
00:17:15.840perspective was, of course, the video of Tyler Robinson playing in the Washington County Sheriff's
00:17:24.460Department. And I actually, as I was looking at it, I turned and I watched Tyler looking at himself
00:17:30.460from the courtroom over to that video of himself walking in,
00:25:22.740It's very clear to me what's going on here.
00:25:25.160and, you know, oh, it would only take a couple hours, maybe just another open session. Okay,
00:25:31.060okay, okay. Let's cut to the chase. What do you want? So when you say that it was unbalanced,
00:25:37.920it felt unbalanced, certainly from the perspective of those of us that want to see this transparency,
00:25:44.180what should the balance be when it comes to something like this?
00:25:48.380Well, let me explain the background first off. So Estes versus Texas is a case from the 1960s.
00:25:53.620It's in the very early days of certainly court being televised at all and in an institution that is notoriously conservative, not real receptive to technological advancement and so forth.
00:26:09.000And so it reflects the mindset of the court from that era. But most of our First Amendment
00:26:14.180jurisprudence that recognizes that access to courts is part of our civic duty as citizens
00:26:20.320to monitor our government and be informed about what's taking place so that we can
00:26:25.600make good decisions about how to improve it. Most of that developed in the 1980s at a later time.
00:26:32.120And so since the Estes decision in 1968, we have, first off, a full reversal of the basic holding of Estes, which was that it is a per se due process violation to televise a criminal trial.
00:26:47.680In a landmark case, Chandler v. Arizona, the U.S. Supreme Court explicitly said, we're not holding that anymore.
00:26:56.500It's a case-by-case determination whether there are due process considerations.
00:27:01.520Subsequently, then we had this First Amendment right of access jurisprudence that began to develop.
00:27:07.620And the most notable cases in that arena are what's called the press enterprise cases.
00:27:14.560They dealt with the right of access to various proceedings in criminal cases.
00:27:19.820And so press enterprise, too, the second time it went up to the court, dealt very specifically with the public's right of access to preliminary hearings.
00:27:29.900A similar process that was taking place in California, as we're seeing in this Utah courtroom here today.
00:27:37.540And so the Supreme Court dealt with all of these issues and it acknowledged, yeah, there's a countervailing interest in the defendant's right to a fair trial.
00:27:46.240However, it explicitly recognized the points that the lawyer for the media was in court making today, which is that often these types of pretrial proceedings are the only time the public is going to have access to the process because so many of our criminal cases result in pleas.
00:28:05.440And so if you're interested in the evidence being vetted and understanding how the process
00:28:11.980got to the point that it did, this may be the only opportunity for us to have that insight.
00:28:18.820And second, the mere fact that evidence might ultimately be inadmissible at trial is not
00:28:27.220in and of itself, like per se, grounds to exclude the public, particularly when that
00:28:32.480evidence is crucial for the trial court's decision that it's being asked to make. Because
00:28:38.780if we can't understand why the court is making its decision, then we're not informed as citizens.
00:28:45.060We don't know if the court is doing a good job. We don't know if the laws are operating the way
00:28:49.340that we expect them to. We don't know what action we may need to take. Andrew, we are coming up on
00:28:55.180a hard break, but thank you for saying this because everything you're saying now makes so
00:29:00.860much more sense to me than what happened in that courtroom just a few hours ago.
00:29:07.560Jack Posobiec, Andrew Burkhardt, right back, Human Events, Prime Time.
00:29:22.260All right, folks, Jack Posobiec back live here at Human Events Daily, Real America's Voice.
00:29:35.120We're on, of course, this is the Human Events special primetime coverage of the Tyler Robinson hearing live from Provo, Utah.
00:29:42.160Folks, this week has been a reminder of what really matters, faith, family, freedom, the legacy that Charlie Kirk helped to build and has left us with.
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00:30:01.120The people you trust to protect and defend your communication matter just as much as the calls that you make on it.
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00:30:56.280All right, we're on again with Andrew Burkhart.
00:30:59.120And, Andrew, there was a moment in the case today,
00:31:02.440And it's generated quite a few headlines where the Kirk family lawyer, Jeff Neiman, came up.
00:31:08.880And I believe this was the first time in this hearing that he's made a direct address of the court and was fighting very strenuously for, as you say, the public's First Amendment right to access to not just trial, but also pretrial proceedings.
00:31:25.460meetings and uh that that seemed to me like a very forceful uh thing for for not only for him
00:31:31.940to say but the fact that this was the first time he weighed in it just shows how much of a priority
00:31:36.620it is to the kirk family yeah i was very impressed with uh the the passion he spoke with i kind of
00:31:44.880took me by surprise because i wasn't really expecting him to have such strong feelings
00:31:49.760about it. But I can understand, just given the commentary environment surrounding this case,
00:31:57.740why this matters so much to the Kirk family. His point was that if we can't see what's going on,
00:32:06.040that undermines the legitimacy of this process. And the legitimacy of this process is critical
00:32:12.220for anybody to have a sense that justice is being done. So for that to be threatened is a real
00:32:18.560threat to everything that the Kirk family is having to go through in order to kind of
00:32:24.980endure this extended process through the judicial system that is far from kind to victims of
00:32:37.620And I do understand where the prosecutors are coming from in terms of they have to think
00:32:44.080about the risks and appeals and all of the things that can later be overturned.
00:32:48.380I totally get that. But at the same time, I really am with Jeff very much in in this belief that it is the public's direct access to our courts.
00:33:03.280And he talked about it as, you know, as a guy who does a show like this or you or you who do live streaming, this is how we access our legal proceedings.
00:33:13.100And so it's it's really speaks to whether or not the system itself has that public integrity if we can have direct access to it.
00:33:22.060It's not the 1960s anymore. And in fact, Mr. Novak kept bringing that up as if it was like a like a joke.
00:33:28.400Oh, well, they mentioned television, but I'll have to edit that out a little bit.
00:33:31.960Well, yeah, because that decision is like 60 years ago.
00:33:34.440Mm hmm. Yeah. The culture has has shifted significantly since then and the environment has shifted significantly since then.
00:33:42.200One of the, I think, big changes in perspective that's occurred is that when cameras were novel in courtrooms, it's scary. You're not quite sure what's going to happen. There's concerns about things like people are going to play to the cameras. It's going to undermine the dignity of the process.
00:34:03.860My counter argument to that is that if we had cameras in every single courtroom in this country, which, by the way, we already have, because since COVID, every court in the country is equipped for remote court.
00:34:18.800And so the systems are already in place. They're just not being broadcast to us live.
00:34:22.920But if that was available from every courtroom in the country, then it would be the most normal thing in the world.
00:34:28.040It's only because it's treated as this extraordinary accommodation to allow those of us who can't be physically present in a courtroom to see it, that it has this potential effect on the participants in the process.
00:34:45.460i i completely agree with you and obviously this is a a role for um we're in federal court so
00:34:54.660obviously we're in state court now had he been brought up on federal charges for example we
00:35:00.260would not be getting a live stream of this at all and so i have heard people point out they say well
00:35:05.580you know should he be charged federally and that's that's obviously a question for the legal system
00:35:09.480But just basic understanding for people that, you know, rules of the road here that at the state level, that's the only level of state and local where you have access to live stream criminal proceedings at the federal level.
00:35:22.980They are banned completely. And to your point about the slowness of them, I think it's really only been in the last couple of years where the Supreme Court is at least allowing audio of the oral arguments to be broadcast and people get to tune in.
00:35:38.180And I think it's wonderful. I think it's phenomenal to be able to hear the different justices, to hear the Supreme Court arguments being made, these arguments at the constitutional level, which, of course, affect all cases like we saw today here in Utah.
00:35:51.880So we want more transparency. We do live in a more transparent time. That's just the nature of the world that we live in now. And, you know, to his point, that that's the reason they were talking about television back then, because television was brand new.
00:36:08.180Mm hmm. Yeah, television was just a couple decades old at that point. And I realized there's a lot of different implications with the different media environment that we have today. We're not at really a high point in terms of the trust we have in our institutions. And the media is part of that as well. The trust in the media is not at a particularly high point.
00:36:35.520But we're dependent on the media in the absence of cameras, in the absence of some kind of direct access to the courtroom ourselves to tell us what's going on.
00:36:47.100I would say, I have to say, like, I have been very, it's sat very well with me to see the role, the active role that the media has taken in this particular case to advocate for access the way that they are.
00:37:04.040The problem with these types of arguments is that the state and the defense, they have their own interests at stake. And there are going to be situations where it's not to their benefit to have the cameras there. And so they're not going to be advocating on behalf of all of us who have no dog in the fight. We just want to see the process for ourselves.
00:37:26.300And so that's the critical role that the media advocacy is playing in this particular case is that making sure we actually have a place at the table for our interests to be expressed to the court.
00:37:39.380No, I think it's exactly right, and there's been a number of times where I've noted as well, there was a different representative today, but even for the first two days and for today, it's been that media advocate who is really calling out all of this and standing on that idea of the public's right to access to these proceedings as protected and understood through the Supreme Court's decisions under the First Amendment.
00:38:07.440And Andrea Burkhart, unfortunately, that is all the time I have for tonight.
00:38:11.820Where can people go to follow you and get so much more of your incredible analysis?
00:38:15.320Find me on andreaburkhart.substack.com for your access to the legal document archive that I'm maintaining for this case.
00:38:24.260You can also find me under the handle aburkhartlaw on X and on YouTube.
00:38:29.620And as I said, I will be having a live stream tonight to discuss some of this legal issue.
00:38:34.080well i'm gonna be there ladies and gentlemen as you as always you have my permission