BREAKING: Judge Graf rejects motion to cut cameras during Tyler Robinson hearing, will hear arguments on media access to trial Feb 3

The judge overseeing the Utah case against Tyler Robinson, who has been charged with assassinating Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, ruled against the defense on Thursday, who requested that cameras be blocked from the hearing over multiple violations of a court order on filming. A date of February 3 was set for arguments on the matter of cameras in the courtroom during the trial.

The judge allowed cameras in court for the hearing, but whether or not cameras will be permitted during the trial is still open for discussion. Parties will argue about that February 3, after which Graf will make his ruling.

The defense said that January 30 "might be the one we want to save to argue our anticipated motion that’s coming about keeping cameras out of the courtroom and we will, I imagine the media will." The judge said that there were complications surrounding the date, and the date of February 3 was agreed upon by the parties.

Earlier in the hearing, once the court moved back into a public session, the defense asked that the judge end livestreaming of the hearing for the day over a "violation of the decorum order." The defense claimed that Robinson’s shackles were visible at times in the feed, and that "it is also our understanding that potentially some audio from the council table was heard."

"We are definitely taking more measures on our own to ensure that that does not happen again, but there has also been some filming of computers and materials at council’s desk that’s entirely inappropriate. So we are asking for some remedial measures here. We’re asking for it to terminate for today, and we can proceed after that."

The state agreed that if there has been a violation of the court’s order, "there needs to be some measure taken. We’ll leave it to the court to decide the appropriate reonse to that violation, but we agree that any violation of the court’s order needs to be addressed."

An attorney representing the press in the matter apologized for the "inadvertent" showing of the shackles, and said that the pool photographer had been spoken with. "We’re trying to correct as much as we can on that, but we think termination is not an appropriate remedy. An admonishment from this court, reminder that they need to follow to the letter the court’s EMC order, is appropriate."

Judge Tony Graf ruled that cameras would continue to be allowed in Thursday’s hearing. "I find that excluding the cameras from the courtroom would be disproportionate for this hearing. I find that making it very clear, first, that the transmission cannot begin until court is in session and must end before the court ends, and cannot be filmed before or after." He ordered that the location of the camera be moved from beside the defense table to over to the other side of the room.