Another scalp in President Trump s revenge tour this primary season as Kentucky voters oust incumbent Rep. Thomas Massey. The President makes an endorsement in the highly contentious Republican primary battle for U.S. Senate in Texas. The state has tried to make it abundantly clear and throughout the process that we favor open hearings. Tyler Robinson is back in court as his team fights to limit what the public can see at an upcoming hearing in the Charlie Kirk murder case. And Democrat candidate for California Governor Tom Steyer is under investigation, accused of paying influencers for their support while not disclosing the funding. All that and more on today s AM Update.
00:08:39.520It is now time for Texas Republican voters to decide if they want a strong nominee to help our GOP candidates down ballot and defeat Tallarico in November or a weak nominee who jeopardizes everything we care about.
00:08:52.500I trust the Republican voters of Texas.
00:08:56.600Coming up, Tyler Robinson's defense team asking the judge to close off parts of the upcoming preliminary hearing to the public.
00:09:03.660and Tom Steyer's campaign for California governor under investigation,
00:09:08.440accused of paying influencers to promote the billionaire Democrat without proper disclosure.
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00:10:37.000Tyler Robinson, the man accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk, back in Judge Tony Graff's Utah
00:10:43.380courtroom yesterday. His attorney's delivering arguments on two motions. The first asking the
00:10:48.880judge to hold a hearing to decide whether to hold Utah County Attorney Chris Ballard in contempt of
00:10:53.840court over his appearance on Fox News, where he discussed an ATF report tied to evidence in the
00:10:59.780case. The second asking the court to deny media access to certain portions of Robinson's upcoming
00:11:06.240preliminary hearing, where prosecutors will try to show that they have enough evidence to send
00:11:11.420this case to trial. The ATF report at the center of the first motion, becoming a flashpoint after
00:11:17.060Robinson's defense team highlighted that investigators could not conclusively match
00:11:21.580a bullet fragment recovered from Charlie's body to the rifle allegedly tied to Robinson.
00:11:28.460Prosecutor Ballard then speaking to Fox News and other outlets, arguing the report was being
00:11:33.560mischaracterized. Ballard saying the bullet fragment was too damaged for a conclusive match,
00:11:39.160but was still consistent with the type of round used by the rifle found at the scene.
00:11:44.540Defense attorney Richard Novak arguing Ballard violated the court's gag order,
00:11:48.840which bars both sides from discussing the case with media in ways that could prejudice the jury.
00:11:54.600Novak adding that if prosecutors believed the defense had mischaracterized the report,
00:11:58.620there were other channels to address it.
00:12:00.900If Mr. Ballard and his colleagues thought that we mischaracterized the ATF report, which we did not,
00:12:08.100but if that's what they really believed in good faith, they could have done at least three things.
00:12:13.200One, they could have filed something with this court, a judicial communication, which said, we think that Mr. Novak and his colleagues have mischaracterized this ATF report.
00:12:24.920Number two, they could have reached out to us and said, we think that you have either inadvertently or intentionally misconstrued or mischaracterized this ATF report, and we would like the parties to file something.
00:12:38.420Instead, what they did was they drafted an email and they sent it to media entities like TMZ and they scheduled an interview for Mr. Ballard with Fox and Friends.
00:12:49.580State Attorney Ryan McBride countering that prosecutors were allowed to publicly respond because the reporting had created its own risk of prejudicing this case.
00:12:59.320In this case, there was a tidal wave of media garnering more than 10 million views in a matter
00:13:06.540of hours that mischaracterized the evidence, that misrepresented the evidence, that misled
00:13:12.420the potential jury pool as to what the evidence was. That media, of course, reached Utah County.
00:13:18.900It was widespread, and it created an undue risk of prejudicing or tainting and tainting the jury
00:13:25.200pool. Now, I've mentioned the misleading reports by the media, but I want to be clear, I don't
00:13:30.480place the blame on this for the media. These are reports the media has repeated from defense
00:13:35.600counsel's misleading statements. And I disagree wholeheartedly with defense counsel's statement
00:13:41.020that their statements and their pleading was not misleading because it absolutely was.
00:13:47.060Prosecutor McBride arguing the defense left out the other half of the finding.
00:13:51.940ATF also could not exclude the rifle as the source of the bullet.
00:13:56.620If that omission, that material omission was included here,
00:14:00.320that the ATF was unable to identify or exclude the bullet,
00:14:04.900everyone would know that this is not exculpatory evidence.
00:14:09.160And that leads me to the second material omission,
00:14:11.340which is the analyst reported that the bullet was a .30 caliber class bullet jacket fragment.
00:14:19.02030 caliber class. What does that tell you? Well, that excludes a whole bunch of weapons
00:14:24.800from possibly being the weapon in this case. And on the short list of weapons that are included
00:14:31.640is a .30-06, the weapon that was found at the scene. The reason that omission is material
00:14:40.200is because it shows that this evidence is not in fact exculpatory. By no stretch of the imagination
00:14:46.240is the testimony of this witness exculpatory.
00:14:50.080On the second matter of Robinson's upcoming preliminary hearing,
00:14:54.440Robinson's defense team asking the judge to restrict media access during portions of the
00:14:59.780proceeding. Judge Graff previously allowing cameras in the courtroom, but here the defense
00:15:04.780arguing the media's access should be limited. Robinson's lawyer saying the public learning
00:15:09.400about inadmissible evidence could taint the jury pool. Defense attorney Stacey Visser arguing the
00:15:15.740case has already generated extensive adverse publicity, referencing the fight over the ATF
00:15:20.840report as an example of how evidence can be misconstrued once it reaches the media and
00:15:26.500potential jury pool. Our goal here is to prevent that from happening by avoiding publication of
00:15:33.920evidence before there has been admissibility determinations. Most of the preliminary hearing,
00:15:40.480as far as we can tell, is going to be based off of reliable hearsay. They're calling five officers
00:15:46.540to discuss a very extensive investigation. The reports are lengthy and contain lots of statements
00:15:54.240from other officers and people that collected evidence. And unfortunately, we're not in a very
00:15:59.520good position right now to know what of that testimony is going to be based on personal
00:16:04.680knowledge versus reliable hearsay. So our solution, what we see, is closing the preliminary hearing
00:16:13.000and this court thereafter providing a transcript of what occurred during the preliminary hearing
00:16:20.140that can account for all of the evidence that wouldn't be admissible at trial.
00:16:26.480Deputy Utah County Attorney Chad Grunander drawing a line between limiting public access
00:16:32.180to certain exhibits and closing the courtroom altogether. The state has tried to make it
00:16:37.460abundantly clear throughout this process that we favor open hearings so that the public can trust
00:16:44.020what happens in this courtroom. And public confidence increases when people can see justice
00:16:49.620at work. Are there feasible and effective tools available to this court to ensure a fair trial?
00:16:55.780We've talked about the idea of shielding the public from some of the exhibits
00:17:00.500that are going to be offered into evidence.