Just 24 hrs. after being found not guilty of all charges, Kyle Rittenhouse might be taking it back to court with a potential defamation case against President Biden. According to Fox News, the case would be over a tweet suggesting Rittenhouse was a White supremacist.
Per Fox, Todd McMurtry, who helped former Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann reach a settlement with CNN over a defamation lawsuit, said Biden could be held accountable for a September 30, 2020, social media post weeks before he was elected.
“There’s no other way to put it: the President of the United States refused to disavow white supremacists on the debate stage last night,” Biden’s tweet said.
To get his point across, President Biden included a video along with the tweet. In the video, Kyle Rittenhouse can be seen holding an AR-style rifle on the night he killed two protesters and wounded a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during unrest after the police shooting of Jacob Blake a month earlier.
“What you take from that tweet is that Kyle Rittenhouse was using his rifle and engaging in White supremacist misconduct so it’s actionable,” McMurtry told Fox News. “Not necessarily going to win, but it’s actionable.”
Yesterday, a Kenosha County jury acquitted Rittenhouse of all the charges against him, including first-degree intentional homicide and recklessly endangering safety. And while he’s been acquitted of murder, he’s still a killer.
This, unfortunately, was no shock to much of the world and to the victims’ families who lost their loved ones to the teenager last year.
Anthony Huber was one of the victims who died during the third night of protests following the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Huber’s mother, Karen Bloom, and his father, John Huber released the following statement after the verdict was read:
“We are heartbroken and angry that Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted in his criminal trial for the murder of our son Anthony Huber. There was no justice today for Anthony, or for Mr. Rittenhouse’s other victims, Joseph Rosenbaum and Gaige Grosskreutz. courtroom and repeatedly watch videos of our son’s murder, and because we have been subjected to many hurtful and nasty comments in the past year. But we watched the trial closely, hoping it would bring us closure.
That did not happen. Today’s verdict means there is no accountability for the person who murdered our son. It sends the unacceptable message that armed civilians can show up in any town, incite violence, and then use the danger they have created to justify shooting people in the street. We hope that decent people will join us in forcefully rejecting that message and demanding more of our laws, our officials, and our justice system.
Make no mistake: our fight to hold those responsible for Anthony’s death accountable continues in full force. Neither Mr. Rittenhouse nor the Kenosha police who authorized his bloody rampage will escape justice. Anthony will have his day in court.
No reasonable person viewing all of the evidence could conclude that Mr. Rittenhouse acted in self-defense. In response to racist and violent calls to action from militia members, Mr. Rittenhouse travelled to Kenosha illegally armed with an assault rifle. He menaced fellow citizens in the street. Though he was in open violation of a curfew order, Kenosha police encouraged him to act violently. Kenosha police told militia members that they would push peaceful protestors toward the militia so that the militia could “deal with them.” Soon after, Mr. Rittenhouse killed Joseph Rosenbaum. The police did nothing. Concerned citizens, confronted with a person shooting indiscriminately on the street, stepped in to stop the violence. Anthony was shot in the chest trying to disarm Mr. Rittenhouse and stop his shooting spree. Still, the police did nothing. Mr. Rittenhouse continued to shoot, maiming Gaige Grosskreutz. The police let Mr. Rittenhouse leave the scene freely. Mr. Rittenhouse came to Kenosha armed to kill. Kenosha police encouraged him to act violently, and our son is dead as a result.
We are so proud of Anthony, and we love him so much. He is a hero who sacrificed his own life to protect other innocent civilians. We ask that you remember Anthony and keep him in your prayers.”
While the Huber’s still grieve and process the verdict, Rittenhouse’s mother, Wendy Rittenhouse, had something to say about Biden’s past tweet.
Wendy told Sean Hannity from Fox News, last week that Biden cast her son as a White supremacist for votes.
“When I saw that I was shocked, I was angry. President Biden don’t know my son whatsoever, and he’s not a White supremacist,” she said. “He’s not a racist. And [Biden] did that for the votes. And I was so angry for a while at him and what he did to my son. He defamed him.”
Leo Terrell, a civil rights lawyer and Fox News’ token, also had something to say about Biden’s tweet.
During an appearance on Fox News’ “America Reports,” he stated:
“Let me give Joe Biden advice: Be very careful what you say because you’re subject to a possible defamation lawsuit,” Terrell said after the verdict. “This was a statement that Joe Biden is going to have to pay for and justify. When you just throw this stuff out there, you take risks,” he added.
Before the verdict, Sandmann urged Rittenhouse to pursue defamation proceedings against the media because the parallels between their cases were “impossible not to draw.”
“Kyle was 17-years-old when he became a household name after that terrible tragedy in Kenosha,” Sandmann wrote in the Daily Mail op-ed published Tuesday, “I was 16-years-old when I was catapulted into the national conversation.”
He said that Rittenhouse was the victim of trial by media in which he was “almost immediately labeled a ‘white supremacist’ and a ‘domestic terrorist.’”
The world finally heard from man of the hour Friday when Kyle Rittenhouse broke his silence.
“I believe they came to the correct verdict, and I’m glad everything went well,” the teenager said. “It’s been a rough journey, but we made it through it. We made it through the hard part.” per NBC Chicago.
He will have an exclusive with Sean Hannity on Monday night.
Did you tune into the verdict? What are your thoughts about the case?