MSNBC Banned From Kyle Rittenhouse Courthouse

MSNBC Banned From Kyle Rittenhouse Courthouse

The judge overseeing Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial banned MSNBC from the courthouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin; on Thursday when a freelance producer working for the network, accused of following a bus carrying jurors the previous night. 

“I have instructed that nobody from MSNBC news be permitted in this building for the duration of this trial,” Judge Bruce Schroeder said during a hearing. The judge added that he would think “long and hard” about allowing cameras for live coverage of future trials. 

The Kenosha Police Department said in a statement Thursday afternoon; “that a person alleging to be affiliated with a national media outlet” was briefly taken into custody and issued several traffic citations. The department noted that “no breach of security” took place and the person did not take any photos.

The trial deliberated for a third full day without reaching a verdict on Thursday.

The jury members will return on Today to resume their work. Unlike on previous days, they had no questions & no requests to review any evidence Thursday in the politically and racially fraught case.

Rittenhouse, then 17 years old and a former police youth cadet; shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26. He wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, now 28. Rittenhouse, as well as those shot, are white. 

He could get life in prison if convicted of first-degree intentional homicide. The most serious of the five charges against him. Rittenhouse testified that he acted in self-defence.

On Wednesday, Rittenhouse’s attorneys asked the judge to declare a mistrial as the jury was deliberating. They claimed the defense received an inferior copy of a potentially crucial video from prosecutors.