LAKE COUNTY, IL – Kyle Rittenhouse, the 18-year-old acquitted in the deadly shootings during last year’s civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has announced he is actively fundraising for lawsuits against those who he claims slandered him as being a “white supremacist” and “murderer,” including members of the media, comedian Whoopi Goldberg and President Joe Biden.
Rittenhouse – who had previously teased that lawsuits would be coming – made the official announcement to Fox News Channel prime-time host Tucker Carlson on Monday evening.
“Me and my team have decided to launch The Media Accountability Project as a tool to help fundraise and hold the media accountable for the lies they said and deal with them in court,” Rittenhouse said. “I don’t want to see anybody else have to deal with what I went through. We’re going to hold everybody who lied about me accountable, such as everybody who lied called me a White supremacist. We’re going to handle them in a courtroom.”
Rittenhouse said that he’s looking to bring legal action against “quite a few politicians, celebrities, athletes, Whoopi Goldberg’s on the list.”
“She called me a ‘murderer’ after I was acquitted by a jury of my peers. She went on to still say that,” he said of The View co-host. “And there’s others, don’t forget about Cenk [Uygur] from ‘The Young Turks.’ He called me a murderer before the verdict and continues to call me a murderer.”
Rittenhouse was acquitted of charges of felony homicide in the shooting deaths of Anthony M. Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum, and felony attempted homicide for allegedly wounding Gaige Grosskreutz during protests that took place in August 2020 following the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Rittenhouse has maintained that the shootings were in self-defense.
As for the chances of success for his proposed lawsuits, Erik Ugland, associate professor in the college of communication at Marquette University, said that Rittenhouse has “close to zero” chance of winning.
“I think his chances of success are close to zero,” he said. “I think the things published about him are reasonable interpretations of the observable facts.”
Media attorney Kevin Goldberg likewise said that Rittenhouse faced an uphill battle, but refused to completely rule out the possibility that he could prevail in court.
“I would say he has very little, to no, shot at winning,” he said. “I will not say zero percent, because I have learned in the law to never say zero percent.”
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