The Megyn Kelly Show - Diddy Trial Twist About One Juror, Kohberger Plea Deal, Free Speech Under EU Threat？： AM Update 7⧸1

00:00:00.000 Good morning, everyone. I'm Megan Kelly. It's Tuesday, July 1st, 2025, and this is your AM

00:00:08.340 Update. Verdict watch begins in the Sean Diddy Combs criminal trial. Jewish and Israeli students

00:00:14.040 were assaulted and spit on. They had their kippahs for fear of being harassed. The Trump

00:00:19.080 administration finds Harvard University violated the federal civil rights of its Jewish and Israeli

00:00:24.520 students and threatens to pull all federal funding from the Ivy League school. It's a huge, huge risk

00:00:31.140 if the European definition of hate speech becomes the American rule for hate speech. A deep dive into

00:00:38.360 a new European Union regulation taking effect today that could force American companies to

00:00:43.160 censor American content that has nothing to do with the EU. All that and more coming up in just

00:00:48.700 a moment on your AM Update.

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00:02:10.380 On Monday evening, News Nation correspondent Brian Enten reporting Idaho murder suspect Brian

00:02:16.220 Kohlberger has accepted a plea deal in the November 2022 killing of four University of Idaho students.

00:02:25.020 Enten reporting and Howard Bloom confirming to The Megyn Kelly Show that prosecutors will drop the death

00:02:30.780 penalty in exchange for Brian Kohlberger pleading guilty to committing the quadruple murders and serving

00:02:37.600 life in prison. The trial was set to begin in Idaho, August 18th. This Wednesday now, Kohlberger expected to

00:02:44.960 plead guilty to slaying 20-year-old Ethan Chapin, 20-year-old Zanna Kernodal, 21-year-old Madison

00:02:51.260 Mogan, and 21-year-old Kaylee Gonsalves as they slept in their beds. The Gonsalves family posting to

00:02:57.940 Facebook, quote, it's true, we are beyond furious at the state of Idaho. They have failed us. This was

00:03:04.300 very unexpected. Adding later a statement that reads in part, quote, prosecutors vaguely mentioned a

00:03:11.040 possible plea on Friday without seeking our input and presented the plea on Sunday. Lataw County

00:03:17.020 should be ashamed of its prosecutor's office. The victims' families were treated as opponents from

00:03:22.220 the outset. We weren't even called about the plea. We received an email with a letter attached. Adding

00:03:28.540 insult to injury, they're rushing the plea, giving families just one day to coordinate and appear at the

00:03:33.180 courthouse. Who do they think they are? After more than two years, this is how it concludes. With a

00:03:39.520 secretive deal and a hurried effort to close the case without any input from the victims' families

00:03:45.000 on the pleas details. As of late Monday night, none of the other victims' families had publicly

00:03:50.780 responded to the news. We are officially on verdict watch in the trial of Sean Diddy Combs. On Monday,

00:03:59.360 the judge providing instructions to the jury before beginning deliberations. The judge laying out

00:04:04.180 eight alleged acts for the jury to consider relating to count one, racketeering conspiracy. In order for

00:04:10.140 the prosecution to secure a guilty verdict on that count, the jury must find that Combs, with at least

00:04:15.380 one member of his alleged enterprise, committed at least two predicate criminal acts in a 10-year

00:04:21.040 period. The eight possible acts the jury was offered are kidnapping, arson, bribery, forced labor,

00:04:28.320 transportation to engage in prostitution, sex trafficking, witness tampering, and possession

00:04:33.500 with intent to distribute drugs. To find Combs guilty of racketeering, the judge instructing the

00:04:39.580 jury, they must find the enterprise impacted interstate commerce. Jurors must also find that

00:04:45.040 the criminal enterprise continued in a substantially similar form from 2004 through 2024, and due to the

00:04:52.500 five-year statute of limitations on RICO charges, the criminal enterprise must have continued past

00:04:57.980 2019. The judge elaborating on each predicate crime, explaining, for example, that kidnapping only

00:05:05.060 occurs if the victim does not consent, but consent, if given, can also be withdrawn. Former Combs

00:05:12.000 assistant Capricorn Clark previously testifying to being kidnapped by Combs in 2011 prior to a

00:05:17.980 confrontation with musician Kid Cuddy. Counts two and four charging Combs with sex trafficking by force

00:05:24.280 fraud or coercion. Counts two relating to star witness and former girlfriend Cassie Ventura from

00:05:29.920 about 2009 to 2018. The judge instructing the jury they must be unanimous on at least one specific

00:05:37.260 instance of sex trafficking in order to convict. The judge also telling the jury they can choose how long

00:05:43.040 they would like to deliberate each day, allowing them to stay later than 5 p.m. if they so choose.

00:05:48.420 Not long after deliberations began, the foreperson sending a note to the court raising concerns about

00:05:53.920 juror number 25. The quote, we have a juror, number 25, who we are concerned cannot follow

00:06:00.800 your honor's instructions, end quote. Juror number 25 is reportedly a 51-year-old Hispanic man,

00:06:07.460 a veterinarian, who said he has a PhD in molecular biology and neuroscience. He told the court during

00:06:14.540 jury selection that he likes nature documentaries, operas, and hiking. He has a domestic partner,

00:06:20.500 he said, who is a male graphic designer. The judge granting each side 10 minutes to formulate a

00:06:26.380 response, remarking on each proposal, saying, quote, in large part, they are the same. The judge

00:06:31.220 then sending a reply to the jury, quote, I remind every juror of their duty to deliberate and their

00:06:36.500 obligation to follow my instruction on the law. With that instruction in mind, please continue

00:06:41.280 deliberating. It remains unclear how the juror was unable to follow the judge's instructions.

00:06:46.860 Then, just prior to 5 p.m., the jury's sending two more letters to the judge, one alerting the judge

00:06:53.160 that deliberations would end at 5 p.m. that day, the other reportedly asking the judge if it counts

00:06:59.340 as drug distribution when an individual asks for a controlled substance and the person hands it over.

00:07:06.660 This lawyer's answer? Yes, it counts. While no one knows for sure, the question suggests the jury did

00:07:13.000 not check not guilty on the racketeering count, at least not yet. The judge announcing that he will

00:07:19.320 respond to their question after attorney input tomorrow and dismissing the jury for the day.

00:07:24.520 We will bring you the verdict and all updates as soon as we have them.

00:07:30.160 The Trump administration on Monday announcing Harvard University violated its students' civil rights.

00:07:36.520 This, the latest move in a months-long effort by the Trump administration to crack down on illegal

00:07:41.480 displays of on-campus anti-Semitism and on-campus ideological indoctrination. A Health and Human

00:07:48.040 Services Office for Civil Rights investigation concluding that Harvard failed to address harassment

00:07:53.200 of Jewish and Israeli students on campus in violation of Title VI of the Federal Civil Rights Act,

00:07:59.020 which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin. Press Secretary Caroline

00:08:04.580 Leavitt on Monday describing some of the investigation's findings.

00:08:08.140 The majority of Jewish students reportedly experienced negative bias or discrimination

00:08:13.860 on their campus while a quarter of Jewish students at Harvard felt physically unsafe. Jewish and Israeli

00:08:20.640 students were assaulted and spit on. They had their kippahs for fear of being harassed and concealed

00:08:25.880 their Jewish identity from classmates for fear of ostracization. Harvard campus was wracked by

00:08:31.420 demonstrations, as you all know, violent protests that violated the university's rules of conduct.

00:08:37.720 The demonstrations called for genocide and murder denied Jewish and Israeli students access

00:08:43.320 to campus spaces. These are all facts that Harvard cannot dispute, and that's why the administration

00:08:49.060 has found them in violation of Title VI and has threatened to withhold their federal funding.

00:08:54.400 The Trump administration accusing Harvard of acting, quote, deliberately indifferent toward Jewish

00:08:59.320 and Israeli students facing harassment. In March, President Trump's Department of Education announcing a full

00:09:05.100 review of more than $255 million in contracts and more than $8.7 billion in grants. Since that review,

00:09:12.860 the administration has cut off more than $3 billion, with threats of more on the way. It has also revoked

00:09:18.580 the student visa certification, barring the school from enrolling foreign students. Harvard in return launching

00:09:24.700 two lawsuits, one relating to funding cuts, the other relating to the visa program. Trump officials now

00:09:30.580 warning, Harvard's failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all

00:09:36.620 federal financial resources. A Harvard spokesman on Monday rejecting the Trump administration's findings,

00:09:42.700 saying the school has taken steps to address anti-Semitism by strengthening policies and encouraging 0.97

00:09:48.360 open and respectful civil discourse. Harvard University and administration officials have been

00:09:54.400 engaging in direct negotiations as recently as this month. A formal notice of a civil rights

00:10:00.280 violation like this typically precedes a lawsuit from the Department of Justice and could force a

00:10:06.600 settlement agreement. Coming up, a new law taking effect in the EU today posing a significant threat

00:10:13.820 to American free speech, even if you have no plans of ever crossing the pond.

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00:11:34.940 Beginning today in the European Union, a new, sweeping set of regulations takes effect under the

00:11:43.140 Digital Services Act. These rules could force tech companies to censor content posted anywhere in the

00:11:49.360 world, including from Americans with no connection to the EU. We spoke with senior counsel at the

00:11:55.400 Alliance Defending Freedom, Jeremy Tedesco, about the threat posed to free speech in America.

00:12:00.640 The Digital Services Act is a clear and present threat to Americans' free speech rights. It takes

00:12:06.240 the EU's speech standards, which are very draconian, related to hate speech and misinformation,

00:12:12.500 and it applies them to American companies that run online platforms. And it backs up those standards

00:12:19.040 with billions of dollars in fines if the companies do not comply with the EU's perspective of what is

00:12:25.780 disinformation, what is misinformation, what is hate speech. So now, with the code of disinformation

00:12:30.920 becoming mandatory July 1, that means these companies are facing the actual consequence of

00:12:37.620 6% of their global revenue being fined if they don't comply with the Digital Services Act and what

00:12:43.180 the EU bureaucrats want them to censor online. And so it's a huge problem. It's really a tax on American

00:12:49.300 companies, and a tax that is in existence to censor speech. Violations of the act carry up to a 6%

00:12:57.180 penalty on global revenues from companies like Meta, Apple, and X, potentially amounting to billions of

00:13:03.200 in fines. In January, free speech defenders rejoicing at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's announcement

00:13:09.400 that the social media giant was canceling its brigade of so-called fact-checkers.

00:13:14.100 We're going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes

00:13:18.180 similar to X. Fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more

00:13:23.440 trust than they've created, especially in the U.S. According to Tedesco, under the Digital Services

00:13:28.620 Act, the EU is employing its own army of third-party fact-checkers to monitor for offending content

00:13:35.520 across the globe. They basically delegate the responsibility for determining what is hate

00:13:43.360 speech or what is disinformation to these third-party non-profits or NGOs. And we've heard

00:13:49.700 a lot in the U.S. about how NGOs have been involved in this censorship regime, this censorship

00:13:55.300 industrial complex. Well, that is exactly how the Digital Services Act is designed. Those trusted

00:14:00.560 flaggers, as they call them, go to the companies and tell them, this content needs to be taken down,

00:14:06.060 this content needs to be taken down, this is misinformation, this is hate speech. And the companies,

00:14:10.420 if they don't comply with the trusted flaggers' recommendations, all those penalties, all the

00:14:15.860 enforcement mechanisms of the DSA can come in and be triggered. Tedesco says the vast majority of the

00:14:21.640 censorship will happen behind the scenes without most people ever noticing. These speech restrictions,

00:14:27.720 you're not going to see them. I mean, every once in a while, you might see the tip of the iceberg where

00:14:31.580 some DSA, you know, takedown mandate has resulted in somebody's account being suspended. Over 99% of the

00:14:40.780 censorship that's occurring is occurring behind the veil. The DSA requires these companies to proactively

00:14:45.580 mitigate against the speech that the EU thinks is problematic. Speech that is, again, fully protected under

00:14:52.220 the U.S. Constitution. Speech they consider to be hate speech or, you know, disinformation. These are, you know,

00:14:58.940 effectively are people's views about contentious issues of the day. And the EU is telling these

00:15:04.580 companies, if you don't proactively mitigate, and what that means is writing algorithms, training their

00:15:10.880 AI, and taking other measures to limit the reach of or eliminate speech from their platforms. But if the

00:15:17.840 companies don't do it to the EU bureaucrats, you know, preferences, they can impose those 6% in fines

00:15:26.820 on global revenue. The EU, Tedesco warns, has a far more expansive definition of hate speech than what

00:15:33.500 Americans are used to, pointing to the case of one ADF client in Finland who was charged with hate

00:15:39.120 speech for sharing a Bible verse on social media. A lot of what the EU thinks is hate speech or

00:15:45.880 disinformation is fully protected speech in the United States under the Free Speech Clause of the U.S.

00:15:51.420 Constitution. One of our cases, Pai V. Reisenden, is a Finnish parliamentarian. She posted a Bible verse

00:15:57.780 about marriage, and the Finnish officials charged her with three hate crimes. And she's gone through

00:16:06.100 two cases, one though, so far. Now she's going through her third case, simply for posting a Bible

00:16:11.180 verse on X, Twitter at the time. And that wasn't a DSA-related enforcement effort, but that demonstrates

00:16:19.140 to you exactly what members of the EU think is hate speech. It's you posting a Bible verse for, you know,

00:16:27.820 all your friends online to see. And so it's a huge, huge risk if the European definition of hate speech

00:16:37.320 becomes the American rule for hate speech when it comes to being able to engage in discourse online.

00:16:44.520 Tedesco describes a number of options the Trump administration has in neutralizing the digital

00:16:48.820 services acts threat to American free speech. Ambassador Andrew Puzder was nominated and

00:16:55.120 recently confirmed as the ambassador to the European Union. So what we'd love to see is that

00:17:00.580 the Trump administration tell Ambassador Puzder, you know, a big priority in your work in Brussels

00:17:07.960 is going to be, you know, eliminating this extraterritorial effort underway in Brussels

00:17:15.400 to regulate speech online globally. That comes in a lot of different forms. It can be diplomatic,

00:17:21.380 it can be trade negotiations, it can be talking with member states who are objecting to the DSA,

00:17:27.380 encouraging them to take advantage of their legal options.

00:17:32.800 And that'll do it for your AM Update. I'm Megan Kelly. Join me back here for The Megan Kelly Show,

00:17:37.420 live on SiriusXM Triumph Channel 111 at noon east, on youtube.com slash megankelly,

00:17:42.280 and on all podcast platforms.

The Megyn Kelly Show - July 01, 2025

Diddy Trial Twist About One Juror, Kohberger Plea Deal, Free Speech Under EU Threat？： AM Update 7⧸1

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