One of the most breathtaking twists during the high-drama trial of Kyle Rittenhouse was the moment that Judge Schroeder banned NBC from the courthouse after one of their journalists got caught running a red light while stalking the jury bus.
“Last evening, a person who identified himself as James Morrison and claimed he was a producer for NBC News…and under the supervision of someone named Irene Byon in New York…he was following at a distance and went through a red light,” said Schroeder. “He stated he had been instructed to by Ms. Byon to follow the jury bus.”
The judge then banned the network from the courthouse. “No one from NBC News will be permitted in this building for the duration of this trial,” he ordered. “It’s an extremely serious matter and will be referred to the authorities for further action.”
Byon deleted all of her social media after being outed by the judge for her behavior.
This is Irene Byon, the NBC news producer who asked James Jim Morrison, to follow the Jury in the Kyle Rittenhouse case. She has deleted all of her social media accounts since being named. pic.twitter.com/eL06JPTnOi
— Benjamin Ghazi (@BenjaminGhazi8) November 22, 2021
New bodycam footage from the traffic stop reveals that James Morrison wasn’t the only NBC journalist instructed to follow the jury. Byon admitted to police that she had people all over the courtroom positioned strategically to gather intel on jurors. In the video, Kenosha police are seen calling Byon on Morrison’s phone and discussing the situation with her on speakerphone. Byon stuttered and stammered and tried to explain what her freelancer was doing.
The Rittenhouse jury was under extreme stress and pressure. Earlier in the trial, the judge had revealed that an unknown person had been taking pictures of the jury and threatening to dox them. The camera was confiscated.
“Your office told you to follow this vehicle?” the officer asked Morrison. He replied, “Yes. I mean, it was discreet. I wasn’t going to talk to anybody or anything. Just trying to find a location, that’s all.” The officer then got Byon on the phone. I’m going to transcribe this exactly because her explanation shows she’s so obviously guilty.
My name is Irene and I’m a booking producer with NBC News. We were just trying to respectfully, um, to just see if it’s, um, if it’s possible to, um, find any leads about, um, about the, the case and we were just, um, uh, keeping our distance just to see where, um, people involved in the trial are positioned, um. By no means were we trying to get in contact with any of the jury members or anyone who was in the car we just were, um, just trying to see where, um, where key members of the trial may be at.
Then she dropped a bombshell. Morrison wasn’t the only NBC minion stalking jurors. “We just had our people positioned in different areas, um, of the courthouse, um, to see if anyone, like, would be able to, um, in different areas, and um, we were just like following different…” Then she trailed off.
Without all the stuttering it comes down to this: NBC News positioned people all over the courthouse to follow jurors from the courthouse to their secret location where they were being housed. They did this to discover the location of members of the jury who were being threatened every day by rabid activists. What purpose did that serve? What were they going to do with the information if they got it?
The officer replied “We’re going to ask you to not do that. That’s a concern here. This is huge. We can’t afford anything crazy happening,” he said.
“Got it,” said Byon. “Thank you so much, we are very sorry.”
#KyleRittenhouse
RAW BodyCam Footage of #NBC Producer Following Jury VehiclePart 1 pic.twitter.com/n4jag910Y7
— The Daily Sneed™ 🕗 (@Tr00peRR) November 30, 2021
#KyleRittenhouse
RAW BodyCam Footage of #NBC Producer Following Jury VehiclePart 3 pic.twitter.com/XnKrw6ixPF
— The Daily Sneed™ 🕗 (@Tr00peRR) November 30, 2021
Does anyone really think NBC is sorry for using these tactics? They should be, and the law should ensure they’re sorry by holding them accountable for this. But who would Schroeder refer them to for prosecution? Thomas Binger? Ha! Don’t count on it.
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