BREAKING: Judge restricts cameras on Tyler Robinson after defense claims operator zoomed in on Tyler Robinson to facilitate lip-reading

Judge Tony Graf has ruled that cameras had focused on suspected Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson so that his lips are able to be read. He ruled that for the remainder of the hearing, the pool camera operator was not allowed to film Robinson. 

The two violations shown to the judge amount to 14 seconds, however, the defense claimed that those were "just small portions of much longer footage that was available in the live stream." 

One of Robinson’s defense attorneys said that camera footage of Robinson has been "used by the media to interpret falsely the content of conversations between Mr. Robinson and his lawyers, and it happened again just while the court was in session." He said that one of the clips "shows that the camera is zooming in, the first clip, on Mr. Robinson’s lips as he is trying to communicate with me sitting next to him." 

"I think the court very correctly and very cautiously admonished the cameraman about your December 23 order before this hearing began, and he said he understood the order, and I think the order is very clear as to this lip reader provision, and I can elaborate further why it's damaging, but I think it's obvious to the court, if the media is allowed to interpret the conversations between counsel and his lawyer, it creates all sorts of problems, terms of" getting a "fair trial."

He requested that either the cameras be excluded from the hearing entirely, or have the court "order the cameraman not to shoot any footage of Mr. Robinson," and "not be zooming in on Mr Robinson, his demeanor, his conversations with his lawyers." He said that "what it’s allowing is very prejudicial information to be leaked to the public through these lip readers and body language interpreters, and it’s creating massive prejudicial publicity for us."

Attorney Michael Judd, speaking on behalf of media entities, noted that the "zoom in" language noted by the defense was in regard to a different point in the judge’s order regarding filming. "It's the second sentence of paragraph 48 of the decorum order that I understand is at issue here. It does say no visual recording is permitted of a person's lips so as to be decipherable by a lip reader during conferences involving counsel at council tables or bench conferences with the judge. The zoom in language that you have heard referred to previously doesn't fall in that sentence, the zoom in language comes in the next sentence, which says, no one may zoom in on anything on counsel's table or the bench to identify any writings. So those are two separate things."

The parties also urged the judge to go into a closed hearing in order to hear from witnesses, which the judge denied, saying that "One of my biggest concerns is I have to make findings of fact that are very specific. I can't redact my findings when I issue an order, and I will have to cite to the relevant facts. And quite honestly, the name of the prosecutor is a relevant fact."