The Megyn Kelly Show - Diddy Denied Bail, Kohberger Sentencing Ahead, and Deep Dive on Biden's Autopen: AM Update 7/3
Episode Date: July 3, 2025Sean “Diddy” Combs is found not guilty on the most serious charges, but a judge denies him bail after convictions on lesser counts, citing concerns for public safety. Bryan Kohberger pleads guilty... to murdering four University of Idaho students in exchange for avoiding the death penalty, with an emotional sentencing coming up soon. A government watchdog uncovers that most of former President Biden’s official signatures were made with an autopen, fueling investigations into whether he was truly making presidential decisions.120Life: Go to https://120Life.com and use code MK to save 15%Riverbend Ranch: Visit https://riverbendranch.com/ | Use promo code MEGYN for $20 off your first order.
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Good morning, everyone. I'm Megan Kelly. It's Thursday, July 3rd, 2025. And this is your
AM update. I kid you not. People are pouring baby oil on one another outside this court
house. A big win for Sean Diddy Combs as the mogul is found not guilty on the most serious
charges he faced, but he remains behind bars for now.
Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?
Yes.
Brian Koberger pleads guilty on all counts
in the vicious slaying of four University of Idaho students
in exchange for not facing the death penalty.
And a closer look at former President Biden's
frequent use of the auto pen.
Who was really in charge of running the country? All that
and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update. One in two adults have
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The judge and the Sean Diddy Combs criminal trial denying the defendant's request for
bail Wednesday evening following his conviction on two counts of transportation to engage
in prostitution.
Combs' mouth reportedly dropping at the
no bail announcement. Earlier in the day the jury acquitting the mogul on the
three more serious charges one count of racketeering and two counts of sex
trafficking. The jury returning the verdict shortly after beginning
deliberations on Wednesday. In total the deliberations lasting about 13 hours
across three days. Upon hearing the verdict, Combs pumping his fist,
mouthing, thank you, thank you, to the jurors, then I'm going home to his family. The defense
asking for $1 million bond with travel restrictions while Combs awaits sentencing. Lead prosecutor
Maureen Comey requesting Combs remain in custody, saying, quote, there is a real risk that he will flagrantly disregard
orders from this court.
A lawyer for Cassie Ventura, one of Diddy's victims,
submitting a letter to the judge requesting
Combs not be released, quote, Ms. Ventura believes
that Mr. Combs is likely to pose a danger to the victims who
testified in this case, including herself,
as well as to the community.
Deontay Nash, friend of Ventura who previously testified, submitting a letter to the judge,
reading in part, quote, if he is released now, I have no doubt he will see it as yet
another license to continue intimidating, threatening, and harming people who challenge
or expose him.
The defense arguing the government failed to prove its most serious charge and pointing
to Combs' young child and elderly mother needing him at home.
The judge citing Combs' past violent behavior, noting the defense attorney, quote, full-throatedly
in your closing told the jury there was violence here, end quote, concluding, quote, prior
to the trial the court denied bail and sees no reason to reverse that now.
Combs now faces up to 10 years for each count of
transportation to engage in prostitution as the prosecution and the defense debated sentencing terms
and newly emboldened Combs requesting to speak to the judge directly. No such exchange took place.
A remote hearing is set for Tuesday next week to address the sentencing scheduling.
The remote hearing is set for Tuesday next week to address the sentencing scheduling. Brian Kohlberger accepting a highly controversial plea deal on Wednesday, pleading guilty to
all five counts against him, one count of burglary and four of first degree murder.
Kohlberger admitting to entering a rental home near the University of Idaho, stabbing
20-year-old Ethan Chapin, 20-year-old Zana Kurnodal, 21-year-old
Madison Mogan, and 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves to death.
Throughout the pre-trial process, Kohlberger refusing to speak, remaining silent even at
his own arraignment.
Wednesday in court, Kohlberger speaking publicly for the first time and in a tone better suited
for a trivia contest.
Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?
Yes.
With respect to count one burglary felony, how do you plead Mr. Kohlberg guilty or not
guilty?
Guilty.
As to count two murder in the first degree as it relates to the murder of Madison Mogan,
how do you plead guilty or not guilty?
Guilty.
As to count three as it relates to murder in the first degree for the murder of Madison mogin how do you plead guilty or not guilty guilty as to
count three as it relates to murder in the first degree for the murder of
Kayleigh Gonzalves how do you plead guilty or not guilty guilty as to count
for the first degree murder of Xana Kernel Crono toe Crono toe pardon me
human being how do you plead guilty or not guilty guilty as to count five the
first degree murder of Ethan Chapin, a human being, how do you
plead?
Guilty or not guilty?
Guilty.
Kohlberger avoiding the death penalty according to the terms of this deal, the outcome shocking
and outraging many, including the father of Kaylee Goncalves, who wanted a jury to decide
Kohlberger's fate after a public trial and with the death penalty on the table.
Mr. Gonçalves releasing a statement after the plea that reads in part as follows.
The plea began with the defendant claiming responsibility for his actions with one-word
responses.
All were sufficient for the court and the prosecution team, because that is what this
plea was about today, the court and the prosecution.
A plea that makes everything go away for them and lets them get back to their normal
routine. This plea did not represent the victims' families. It represented an easy
way out and no answers. Former homicide prosecutor Matt Murphy Wednesday on the
Megyn Kelly show.
I'm kind of frustrated, actually. I sat on our death penalty special
circumstance committee for 15 years in Orange County.
And essentially what you do in a special circumstance murder like this, it's special circumstances
murder is you go through the law piece by piece and you weigh the aggravating versus
mitigating circumstances.
And from that, we would make a recommendation to the elected DA, but then makes a very somber decision whether or not to seek the death penalty or life without possibility of parole.
This case screams out for the death penalty.
So my big question here is what changed?
Because it's unethical to file a death enhancement or to seek the death penalty with the idea that you are extracting a plea.
And when you hear the evidence for me listening to the fact that he got a K-bar on Amazon
before we moved out, this is an overwhelming case.
So again, what changed other than him deciding, other than Coburger asking to plead guilty,
that changed the assessment that this was a death penalty case?
The big winner today, I hate to say it, is Ryan Coburger.
And I am, I'm just am just as frustrated listening to that.
Author Howard Bloom, who has diligently covered this case with many exclusives, also criticizing
the prosecutors over the plea deal on the Megyn Kelly show.
It is such a cynical decision on the part of the state to make this plea bargain.
And during the course of the recitation by Thompson,
he kept on saying things, so many things we don't know. He said, for whatever reason,
we don't know exactly why he did this. The evidence suggests these are answers that we will never get
that the families, more importantly, will never get. The state, the town, the surviving families,
they will never forget this. And I think they've been done a real injustice by the state.
Many family members of the victims appearing in court today, visibly
emotional in the presence of their loved ones, murderer.
NBC reporting Christy Goncalves, mother of Kaylee, sobbing at the mention of her
daughter, Ben Mogan, father of Madison Mogan, looking agitated, breathing heavily.
The families split on the plea deal.
Steve Gonsalves accusing prosecutor Bill Thompson of making a deal with the devil.
The Moggan family releasing a statement saying they support the agreement 100 percent, believing
it to be the best possible outcome.
The Chapin family too supported the deal.
Kohlberger, now a convicted murderer, will not be allowed to appear in civilian clothes for
his sentencing hearing on July 23, as now he's lost the presumption of innocence.
Families of the victims will be allowed to make impact statements on that day.
Kohlberger will receive four consecutive life sentences for the murders, plus 10 years for
the burglary charge, somewhat incredibly, he was not given life without the possibility of parole.
Coming up, who was really running the Biden White House?
A look inside the investigation of who controlled the auto pen.
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As America watched the clear cognitive decline of President Joe Biden throughout his presidency, many wondered who
was actually running the White House. A bombshell report by the non-profit government watchdog
The Oversight Project, finding the vast majority of White House documents with President Biden's
signature, were signed by AutoPen. And AutoPen is a mechanical device used to replicate a signature.
We spoke to the president of The Overs oversight project, Mike Howell, about his investigation
and what it reveals about who was actually running the Biden White House.
We like the rest of the country were acutely aware of the fact that President Biden was
malfunctioning and not running the White House.
And we were trying to look into the ways that they could run a White House without a
functioning president. And we basically centered on how are they signing things? How's the paper
moving as one of the ways? And so we pulled the signatures and saw that, you know, a pattern
emerged and it was very clear that there was copy and paste signature and auto-penn device.
And so we began pulling the paper to study the usage of it over time. We basically
have found that there are at least three and there's a fourth one that we have found that
we're working up now, versions of the signature that were used for various types of documents
to include executive orders, pardons, proclamations. And the usage of it picked up over time, particularly
in like weird scenarios in which Biden was
actually in D.C. and able to sign other things.
Multiple investigations launching in the wake of these findings, including President Trump
ordering the DOJ to launch a probe last month.
The House Oversight Committee also starting its own investigation, last week summoning
former Biden's staff secretary, Neera Tanden, for more than five hours of closed door testimony.
Chairman James Comer later revealing Tanden testified she had minimal
interaction with president Biden.
Howell describes the role of the staff secretary and just how unusual it is for
someone in this role to have limited FaceTime with the president.
It is a very important job.
It is the person who controls the paper flow from the president and keeps things at the
White House legal and organized traditionally, a very, very senior staffer.
Neera Tandon famously was, she's a Soros operative.
It's her job to basically ensure that the paper moves in accordance with policy procedure
and is legally sufficient.
When you have White House senior staff
that is basically not interacting with the president,
but is in charge of deploying his signature
and his binding authority on documents,
it's a major, major break in past president and procedure.
You shouldn't have someone in that position of seniority
that doesn't even speak with the president
to know that he actually
approves the things that you're putting his name to. She was taking orders via paper decision
memos that went up to senior staffers then came back to her. And so the chain of commands was
broken in that regard. The signature was being applied without the person applying it knowing
that the president actually signed off on it. LESLIE KENDRICK, HOST, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, and The Washington Post Howell says Tandon's testimony raises questions about whether President Biden knew what he
was signing off on.
HOWELL KENDRICK, HOST, The Washington Post, and The Washington Post, she also spoke to
a really irregular process in which written decision memos would go up the chain of command
from her and then would come back with just an initial saying it's good to go.
And that raises another major question.
Is the decision memo the actual text of the executive order or is it something different?
One fact pattern that we could be dealing with is a descriptive memo goes up to the
president saying something to the effect of we're going to do a bunch of executive orders.
They will undo Trump's inhumane policies and they will make everything sunshine and roses on the border.
Everybody loves it.
This is going to make you a hero.
And then the executive orders that come out are these really prescriptive and destructive executive orders to undo every last aspect of border security.
And so it could be something that is way out of line with the presidential intent and dissent as to, you
know, what is in the decision memo versus what actually happens. And, uh, that's what
I'm looking to see. Is there a mismatch there? Uh, that's one of the, I think the big themes
we're we're zeroing in on.
Howell describes a number of possible crimes his group is investigating.
We think there are crimes that are likely to have been committed. Those would include impersonation.
You can't impersonate a federal official.
You can't forge a signature.
There could be forgery.
I think there's a lot of bribery at play.
I think the whole story of the Biden family pay to play scheme over decades is one of
bribery and foreign pay to play and failure to register as foreign agents and doing work
on behalf of foreign governments.
Also, secondary to that, like the people who were aware that this scheme was underway and that they were functioning the
White House out of the constitutional order and, you know, with all these other crimes that I've
mentioned potentially happening, could be guilty of misprisonment of a felony, which is basically
like a failure to report. In June, the Biden office releasing this statement, attributable to President Biden, quote, let
me be clear, I made the decisions during my presidency.
I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation and proclamations.
Any suggestion that I didn't is ridiculous and false.
But for now, the various investigations are ongoing.
And that'll do it for your AM Update.
I'm Megyn Kelly.
Join me back here for The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Triumph Channel 111 at noon
east, on youtube.com slash Megyn Kelly, and on all podcast platforms.
