Tyler Robinson’s defense team has already tried and failed to have the prosecution team disqualified on the grounds that they had a conflict of interest.
The alleged conflict of interest surrounds the familial connection between a Utah County prosecutor and their adult child, who was present at UVU when Kirk was shot. Defense attorneys claim this connection could compromise the fairness of the trial.
“While the second person in line was speaking with Charlie, I was looking around the crowd when I heard a loud sound, like a pop. Someone yelled, ‘he’s been shot,’” the child said in the affidavit.
Prosecutors have argued that this is not a conflict of interest, asserting that there is no legal or ethical conflict that would require the attorneys or the team’s disqualification. They added that the child did not see the shooting itself or see the accused shooter.
The judge handling the case eventually and correctly ruled that this was not a conflict of interest. The prosecutor’s daughter is not a witness in the trial and the idea that he might be going after Robinson because his daughter was traumatized is silly. Lots of people, myself definitely included, were traumatized by witnessing that murder on video. But prosecutors are already supposed to be anti-murder. It’s their job.
Two weeks ago, the defense came up with a new delay tactic. Actually, to be more accurate it was one of several. One of the claims was that the prosecution should be held in contempt for violating the judge’s gag order. The basis for this novel claim is that prosecutors responded to news outlets after the defense placed intentionally misleading claims in a court filing about the bullet match to the gun.
Tyler Robinson and his defense team want the Utah County Attorney’s Office to be held in contempt for allegedly breaking a gag order in the case…
On March 27, Robinson filed a motion to either vacate or postpone his scheduled preliminary hearing. In the motion, the defense notes that during initial ballistics testing by the the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, it “was unable to identify the bullet recovered at autopsy to the rifle allegedly tied to Mr. Robinson.”
That information received attention from several national outlets, such as USA Today, TMZ and Politifact. In his motion, Robinson says Chris Ballard, who is a prosecutor in the Robinson case as well as the spokesman for the Utah County Attorney’s Office, is quoted by those news outlets.
I wrote about this misleading claim after the Daily Mail ran with a fake headline: “Bullet used to kill Charlie Kirk did NOT match rifle allegedly used by suspect Tyler Robinson, new court filing claims.” That headline went viral and was picked up by Candace Owens and other charlatans, but as many people explained at the time, all this meant was that the bullet was too broken up to reach a conclusion either way.
“It’s not uncommon for a round that went through a human body, especially if it traveled through tissue, to say conclusively that it’s tied to a specific firearm, because by nature the projectile is supposed to transfer all of its kinetic energy, and it often disintegrates into fragments and whatnot,” said Bernard Zapor, a former ATF special agent in charge and faculty associate at Arizona State University. “The fact that it went through several bone structures, there was going to be very little left.”
As a result, it would be unfair to conclude that the bullet hadn’t been fired out of the rifle police recovered nearby, experts told Fox News Digital.
“Unable to identify is not the same as ruled out,” said retired FBI supervisor agent Jason Pack. “That’s a finding of inconclusiveness, not exoneration.”
In any case, prosecutors had to waste time responding to this latest distraction and this week they filed their response. Here’s a bit of what they said.
On March 27, 2026, Defendant filed a Motion to Vacate or Continue the Preliminary Hearing.
Defendant stated in that filing: “Regarding the firearm evidence, the defense has been provided with an ATF summary report which indicates that the ATF was unable to identify the bullet recovered at autopsy to the rifle allegedly tied to Mr. Robinson.”…
In fact, the complete statement from the ATF Summary Report reads: “The Exhibit 6A bullet jacket fragment could not be identified or excluded as having been fired from the Exhibit 1 rifle based on an agreement of all discernable class characteristics and neither sufficient agreement nor sufficient disagreement of individual characteristics. The result of the comparison was inconclusive.”
As for their office responding to this going viral, they argue the law specifically allows for that.
The State responded to media inquiries by explaining the full context of the ATF report:
“[w]hen the results of a bullet fragment analysis come back as inconclusive, that means only that the fragment did not contain enough detail for the examiner to determine whether the characteristics on the fragment were consistent with having been fired by a particular firearm.”…
Rule 3.6(c) of the Utah Rules of Professional Conduct plainly allows a lawyer to respond to this kind of unduly prejudicial publicity. It allows a lawyer to “make a statement that a reasonable lawyer would believe is required to protect a client from the substantial undue prejudicial effect of recent publicity not initiated by the lawyer or the lawyer’s client.”
As Rule 3.6(c) plainly allowed, the State responded to the erroneous and therefore highly prejudicial reports spawned by Defendant’s mischaracterization. The State accurately explained the ATF’s conclusions and, without referring to any specific evidence, expressed confidence that it had sufficient evidence to proceed to trial.
Again, the defense has been begging the court for a 6-month delay in the case, claiming they need that much time just to read all the evidence against their client. This is just another ruse by the defense designed to delay the case by throwing up chaff that the prosecution and the judge have to respond to before they can move on to the trial.
In the long run, none of this is going to help Tyler Robinson who is absolutely guilty and is going to be convicted once the defense runs out of stalling tactics.
Editor’s Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.
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