Kyle Rittenhouse’s attorney Mark Richards talked to the press candidly after the jury returned a not guilty verdict for his client and set up the first hint of defamation suits to come. “President Biden said some things that I think are are so…untrue,” he said regarding Biden’s allegation that Rittenhouse is a “white supremacist.”
“He’s not a white supremacist,” said Richards. “If the government had any information regarding his cell phone or anything that he had been to any of those websites or been online doing that kind of stuff, it would have been introduced into evidence. It wasn’t.”
The media asked Richards if there would be a civil case and he said, “I’m a criminal defense attorney. I don’t do civil.” But one can imagine the civil attorneys out there lining up to get a bite at the media and anyone who spread the vicious “white supremacy” lie.
Related: Kenosha Crowd Reacts to Rittenhouse Verdict…and It’s Not What the Lying Media Told You Would Happen
Richards also said he learned a lesson in patience after the long jury deliberations. “I learned I can wait 24 hours for a verdict,” he said with a chuckle. Richards also disclosed that Rittenhouse hopes to be a nurse and will most likely have to move away from his home because his life is in danger. “I think it’s too dangerous. He’s had 24-hour security since this happened.” Richards described getting death threats on his personal cell phone and said he stopped picking up after the third one. “To me it’s scary how many death threats we’ve had.”
Richards also took a dig at Rittenhouse’s first two lawyers saying “getting rid of the first two lawyers” was key in winning the case. The controversial Lin Wood, who was blamed for depressing Republican turnout in 2020 was one of those lawyers. A fight is brewing over the $2 million dollar bail that Wood’s team helped raise.
When asked about the prosecutorial misconduct, Richards said “I’ve known Tom Binger for a long time…I’m disappointed with some of the things he did.” Richards then listed some of the bad behavior by prosecutors in the case. “Putting on the Khindri brothers when you know they’re lying,” he charged. “Changing your prosecution and going with provocation after you say that my client chased him down and shot [Rosenbaum] in the back—calling him an active shooter when he’s not.”
Richards called out the underhanded tactics by the state. “Justice is done when the truth is reached,” he said. “A prosecutor is supposed to seek the truth. It’s not about winning and this case became about winning and that’s probably why it got so personal.”
Richards called out the media for their treatment of Judge Schroeder too. “I’ve never seen so much made out of so little,” he said—probably referring to the Asian food joke stroke the media had. “Judge Schroeder gives you a fair trial as a defendant. You don’t want him to sentence your client.”
The media asked Richards how he felt about the live coverage. “I think that I’ve never done a case that was televised gavel to gavel,” he replied. “I knew this case was big. I had no idea it was going to be this big.” Judge Schroeder grew tired of the media coverage very quickly and even said he would “rethink” allowing it again. Richards doesn’t think he’s serious about that. “I suspect when everything cools down if there’s another big case in front of Judge Schroeder he’d let the cameras in.”
Then Richards pointed out one of the absurdities in this case. “It was a case about self-defense, the right to protect oneself against Mr. Rosenbaum,” he said. “I don’t want to speak ill of the dead but he wasn’t a nice person and everybody knows why and a lot of that didn’t come in front of the jury,” said Richards in reference to Rosenbaum’s multiple convictions for raping five little boys. The media allowing the public to make a hero out of a five-time child sodomizer was really the lowest point in this entire sideshow.
I asked the protesters about the sign calling Rosenbaum, a convicted sex offender, a hero.
“Why do we even have to bring all that up, seriously? That’s nothing but hate talk.”
“It’s like asking a woman what she was wearing. It doesn’t matter. He was murdered.” pic.twitter.com/m8zbN0OISf
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) November 15, 2021
i'll just leave this here pic.twitter.com/HNnv33z7DI
— caekfu (@caekfu) November 19, 2021
When asked about his client’s reaction after the verdict and what was said between them, Richards declined to answer. “Anything that is said at this time is kind of meaningless. We have to take it in and reflect on it. It takes a while to process what happened today,” he said. “I haven’t processed it.”
Richards said the last time he saw the jury before the verdict they seemed very tense. “If there was some early verdict and they were playing us for fools then they’re great actors and actresses. I don’t believe that,” said Richards in response to media inquiries into the prolonged deliberation.
As for what’s next for Richards, he says he can only take a couple of days off and has plans to go to a Badger game before starting a new trial next week. “Can I go home?” said Richards, growing tired of the endless questions.
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