MANHATTAN (LN) — A Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday held NBC Universal Media in civil contempt for refusing to hand over outtakes from an interview with Kim Williams, imposing a nominal $1-per-day sanction but staying enforcement while the network pursues an appeal of the underlying journalist-privilege ruling.
U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman held all three elements of civil contempt satisfied: his August 2025 order compelling production of the outtakes was clear and unambiguous, NBCU's noncompliance was clear and convincing, and the network had made no attempt to comply.
NBCU did not dispute any of that. In a letter to the court, the network stated that "the only path to appeal is through NBC News declining to comply with the Court's Order" and that "NBC News has no choice but to resist compliance."
Liman acknowledged the defiance was intentional but declined to treat it as contemptuous in the ordinary sense. "NBCU's noncompliance is willful in that it is intentionally not complying with the Court's order, but its noncompliance is not out of disrespect for the law or the Court, as it seeks to appeal the August 2025 Order in good faith," he wrote.
The network told the court that if its appeal fails, it would comply without hesitation and that "no sanction is required to ensure [NBCU's] compliance if its appeal efforts are unsuccessful." Movant Eric Lyle Williams, who sought the contempt finding, did not claim any financial loss from the delay and consented to the stay.
On the stay question, Liman walked through the four-factor test and held that the balance tipped toward NBCU even though the first factor — likelihood of success on the merits — weighed against the network. He noted that the August 2025 order "did not depart from the rulings of the Circuit or other district courts" on the journalist's privilege — language he had used just weeks earlier in denying NBCU's bid for interlocutory appeal — meaning the Second Circuit would have to find a clear abuse of discretion to reverse.
On the irreparable harm factor, Liman cited the Second Circuit's 1999 Gonzales decision for the proposition that "[i]f the parties to any lawsuit were free to subpoena the press at will, it would likely become standard operating procedure for those litigating against an entity that had been the subject of press attention to sift through press files in search of information supporting their claims."
He also noted that before Gonzales, stays in nearly identical outtakes disputes — including a 1996 Second Circuit order pausing sanctions against NBC over Dateline footage — were routine.
The $1-per-day meter is running, but no payment is due until the Second Circuit weighs in on whether Liman's original order compelling the Kim Williams interview footage was an abuse of discretion.