Kyle Rittenhouse, who was found not guilty on all charges Friday may possibly have a defamation case against President Joe Biden over reference to ‘white supremacists’ in a video, experts say.
The video was posted by President Biden in a September 2020 tweet, which could now possibly cause Biden legal trouble, according to lawyer Todd McMurtry, who helped Nicolas Sandmann sue news outlets for upward of $800 million for defamation.
The now-19-year-old famously settled with CNN and The Washington Post after they deemed him a racist when he was seen in viral video footage wearing a MAGA hat.
Sandmann sued CNN after it covered the viral moment of him staring down a Native American playing traditional music on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial while the teen wore a MAGA hat.
He also won a lawsuit against the Washington Post in June 2020 for an undisclosed amount.
Biden, 79, tweeted on September 30, 2020: ‘There’s no other way to put it: the President of the United States [Donald Trump] refused to disavow white supremacists on the debate stage last night.’
Although Trump was not asked specifically about Rittenhouse’s actions on the debate stage at the time, the 18-year-old was featured in the tweeted video holding a rifle in the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020.
‘What you take from this tweet is that Kyle Rittenhouse was using his rifle and engaging in white supremacist misconduct, so it’s actionable,’ McMurtry told Fox News on Friday after Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges against him.
The lawyer admitted the 18-year-old was ‘not necessarily going to win’ but it is ‘actionable.’
Civil rights lawyer Leo Terrell warned Biden on Fox News that the now-president couldn’t justify his remarks and that he’s ‘going to have to pay for and justify his actions.
Biden released a statement following the verdict Friday, saying: ‘While the verdict in Kenosha will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included, we must acknowledge that the jury has spoken.’
McMurtry also argues that Sandmann and Rittenhouse have similar cases: both were minors when the event occurred and were private figures at the time.
Although household names now, without being public figures or celebrities beforehand, Rittenhouse and Sandmann only have to prove Biden’s negligence, instead of a higher burden of proving actual malice, the lawyer said.
Sandmann has also encouraged Rittenhouse to sue media outlets for defamation as well.
‘The parallels between me and Rittenhouse are impossible not to draw,’ Sandmann wrote in an op-ed for DailyMail.com. ‘The attacks on Kyle came from the national news media, just as they came for me.
‘So every single label on Kyle as a ‘terrorist’, ‘white supremacist’, and ‘school shooter’ in the streets of Kenosha, will only ever be withdrawn after the damage has been done.
‘So, if Kyle is prepared to take on another burden in his early life, with the acceptance that it might result in nothing, I answer, give it a shot and hold the media accountable,’ he wrote.
