Rittenhouse team using social media for PR
Posts highlight merch, show teenager with dog, attack prosecution
Kyle Rittenhouse’s courtroom trial on homicide charges from shootings during the protests in Kenosha is likely months away, but the court of public opinion seems to have been in full session every day.
His website and Twitter account have been actively attacking the prosecution, pushing new merchandise and assuring supporters Rittenhouse is getting jacked at the gym and preparing for college, while raising his new dog, Milo.
Rittenhouse, 18, faces five felonies, a misdemeanor and a curfew ticket from the events of Aug. 25. Using an AR-15type rifle, he killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz.
He’s been free on bail since November and isn’t due back in court until March 11 for a pretrial conference. He has become a cause celébrè among some conservatives and gun rights advocates, and a symbol of white privilege and disparate justice among the left.
Fundraising, bail money stir debate
Behind his supporters’ effort to portray him in a positive light, another layer of social media continues to debate his past lawyers’ ethics and raise questions about what became of more than $2 million they raised from the public last fall and who’s entitled to the $2 million posted for Rittenhouse’s bail if a jury acquits him.
In the latest intrigue, one Rittenhouse supporter says former Rittenhouse lawyer John Pierce tried to use the bail money — before it was posted — as leverage to get more loans for the lawyer.
Gordon Rose, who runs Clip Artist Films, posted a video this week in which he takes Pierce to task for how he tried to handle Rittenhouse’s case — not a novel critique.
But Rose says Pierce — who Rose hired to represent him in a 2018 commercial case —asked him last month to reach out to Rose’s “banking contacts” to see about getting a loan against the $2 million bail Pierce had posted for Rittenhouse.
Rose said the request made his stomach sink. “You don’t have right to that money, dude, that’s Kyle’s money,” Rose tells Pierce in the video.
HillReporter.com has a story explaining the 20-minute Rose video.
Earlier this month, the case made news when Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder denied the state’s request that Rittenhouse be jailed until he posted another $200,000 bail because he hasn’t updated his current address.
His attorney, Mark Richards of Racine, persuaded the judge that prosecutors have known all along Rittenhouse wasn’t living at his old address in Antioch, Illinois. Counsel have said repeatedly that Rittenhouse, his mother and sisters were at a “safe house” because of death threats.
His new chief spokesman, Los Angeles lawyer Robert Barnes, took over that job from fellow LA litigator Pierce after Rittenhouse fired him earlier this month. Barnes doesn’t carry the financial, professional and personal baggage that dragged down Pierce, and he questions some of Pierce’s early tactics and billings in the case, like reportedly spending some $400,000 on a doomedto-fail challenge to Rittenhouse’s extradition from Illinois to Wisconsin.
Attacks on prosecutor, case continue
But Barnes has fallen right in stride with Pierce’s attacks on the prosecutor and the case itself.
During a recent regular appearance on an internet interview show, Barnes went after Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger for his motion to get the bail raised, while repeatedly praising Schroeder for his decision to deny the motion.
“The prosecutor is a liar and a fraud, he’s unethical, he’s dishonorable and dishonest,” Barnes railed.
“It’s some of the most morally offensive, constitutionally offensive conduct I’ve seen from a prosecutor in my life. This guy is at the bottom of the gutter when it comes to ethics and constitutional concern,” Barnes said.
“He’s just a poor kid from a poor family they thought they could railroad and they’re still seeking to railroad and legally lynch if they can get away with it.
“His only mistake was that an honorable, honest judge was not going to give in to that,” Barnes said. He also called Schroederan old-school, nononsense judge who won’t “tolerate any gibberish” in a high-profile political trial.
Protesters call on judge to resign
Meanwhile, those outraged that Rittenhouse is free on bail held demonstrations calling for Schroeder to resign after he declined state’s request to have Rittenhouse arrested and raise his bail over the address issue.
Asked if he cared to respond to Barnes, Binger said he didn’t know who Barnes was or what he said and didn’t care anyway.
Pierce had requested limited permission to practice in Wisconsin, to join Richards on the trial team, but withdrew the motion as prosecutors objected, citing Pierce’s inflammatory comments in the media and financial questions.
Barnes — who is also licensed in Wisconsin — has said he might become part of the defense team. On the recent show, he explained that if he did become the attorney of record in the criminal case, he’d face certain restrictions he said don’t apply if he doesn’t — presumably the freedom to take the kind of shots he took minutes later in the show.
Richards confirmed Thursday that Madison defense lawyer Corey Chirafisi is now part of the defense team.
Lawyers to argue killings were self-defense
Rittenhouse has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and his lawyers have said he acted in lawful self-defense on the evening of Aug. 25.
His next court date is March 10, and jury selection is tentatively set for March 29, but his lawyers have said they expect the trial won’t actually happen for several months. And it will be costly, they say. Before he left the case, Pierce had said during fundraising appearances with Wendy Rittenhouse, Kyle’s mother, that they were trying to raise $2.5 million.
The latest version of the Team Rittenhouse website doesn’t have a tracker showing how much money has been pledged.
Some Twitter accounts that discuss Rittenhouse also continue to seek donations for his friend Dominick Black, 19, who is charged with providing Rittenhouse the assault-style rifle used in the homicides. Black’s private attorney recently withdrew from the case and Black told the court he was meeting with the Public Defender’s Office. As of Thursday, no new attorney had been listed for Black.
Contact Bruce Vielmetti at (414) 224-2187 or bvielmetti@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ProofHearsay.