Defense Attorney in Ahmaud Arbery Killing Tells Court ‘We Don’t Want Any Other Black Pastors Coming In Here’

CNN’s Jake Tapper and Martin Savidge on Thursday covered a rather startling clip from the murder trial of three men for the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in which a defense attorney told the court they “don’t want any more Black pastors” in the courtroom.

Arbery was shot and killed on February 23, 2020 as he jogged through a residential neighborhood. His killing was captured in a viral cell phone video that surfaced about two months later, and the three men accused of causing his death were indicted in June.

Savidge is covering the trial, and told Tapper that one of the “biggest debates of the day” on Thursday took place without the jury in the room.

He introduced the clip, describing attorney Kevin Gough complaining about Al Sharpton having been in the room with the Arbery family on Wednesday.

Gough’s quote in the clip was surprising and blunt.

“Obviously, there are so many pastors they can have. If their pastor is Al Sharpton that’s fine. That’s it. We don’t want any other Black pastors coming in here or Jesse Jackson or whoever was in here sitting with the victim’s family trying to influence the jury in this case,” said Gough.

After the clip played, Savidge told Tapper, “The judge basically said, it’s public space. Anyone can come in here as long as they fit the decorum of the court, Jake.”

A somewhat floored Tapper replied, “That is quite a statement in a Georgia trial in 2021.”

Gough represents William “Roddie” Bryan, one of the three defendants in the ongoing trial that has been overshadowed in the media by the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha, WI. The two killed in that shooting were both White.

Watch the clip above, via CNN.