Money is rolling in for the legal defense of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old falsely accused of murder in the death of two rioting Antifa-Black Lives Matters goons in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Famed lawyer Lin Wood announced that #FightBack, founded to defend the constitutional rights of Americans besieged by the radical Left and out-of-control government, has raised more than $600,000 for the young man.
Rittenhouse is facing two homicide charges in connection with the events of August 25, when three rioting thugs in Kenosha attacked him. He killed two and wounded one.
The Charges
The trouble for young Rittenhouse began when he was providing first aid to injured “protesters” during the riots over the shooting of sex-assault suspect Jacob Blake, who had a knife within reach when police shot him.
Convicted sex-offender Joseph Rosenbaum and repeat domestic-abuser Anthony Huber attacked Rittenhouse, who shot and killed both in self defense. Those deaths led to charges of first-degree reckless homicide and first-degree intentional homicide.
Rittenhouse shot Gaige Grosskreutz in the arm. That wounding invited a charge of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, even though Grosskreutz, a convicted criminal with a firearms violation, carried a handgun at the time.
Video of the shootings clearly shows that the three attacked Rittenhouse. In one recording, Rosenbaum ranted like an unhinged sociopath; another shows his attack. Huber attacked Rittenhouse with a skateboard. Grosskreutz moved on Rittenhouse with a hangun in his hand, and told a friend he was sorry he didn’t kill Rittenhouse, the friend wrote on Facebook.
Nevertheless, Rittenhouse must defend himself against the combined power of prosecutors and the hate-Rittenhouse leftist media.
#FightBack
Almost immediately, friends wrote that #FightBack would pull together a legal defense team. The lead attorney is John Pierce of Pierce Bainbridge.
On Sunday, Wood tweeted that #FightBack had raised $605,550 from 11,254 donors.
There will be total transparency on part of #FightBack Foundation.
To date, 11,254 donors have donated total of $605,550 toward the Foundation’s efforts to fund defense of Kyle Rittenhouse & help support & protect his family.
$0 from @Microsoft @Apple @BankofAmerica @MLB https://t.co/T8UH1r2A1J
— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) September 1, 2020
Wood also reported that the foundation has retained four attorneys, all working at discounted rates, and needs one in Illinois.
GoFundMe ended a fundraising effort for Rittenhouse, and Facebook has blocked users from sharing the campaign at GiveSendGo, the Christian crowdfunding site.
The Rittenhouse legal team released a statement last week that explained he was in town to help scrub away graffiti and provide first aid to injured “protesters.”
But then Rittenhouse stepped forward to defend the property of car dealer besieged by Antifa-BLM rioters:
[Rittenhouse] was accosted by multiple rioters … [who] began chasing him down. .. Upon the sound of a gunshot behind him, Kyle turned and was immediately faced with an attacker lunging towards him and reaching for his rifle. He reacted instantaneously and justifiably with his weapon to protect himself, firing and striking the attacker.
That attacker was sex-offender Rosenbaum. Rittenhouse tried to provide first aid, but the mob was about to pounce and so he fled “for his safety and his survival.”
Then came the second attack:
The mob pressed in on him and he fell to the ground. One attacker kicked Kyle on the ground while he was on the ground. Yet another bashed him over the head with a skateboard. Several rioters tried to disarm Kyle. In fear for his life and concerned the crowd would either continue to shoot at him or even use his own weapon against him, Kyle had no choice but to fire multiple rounds towards his immediate attackers, striking two, including one armed attacker. The rest of the mob began to disperse upon hearing the additional gunshots.
Huber attacked with the skateboard; Grosskreutz brandished the gun.
Rittenhouse’s attorneys called the homicide charges a “reactionary rush to appease the divisive, destructive forces currently roiling this country,” and “after learning Kyle may have had conservative political viewpoints, they immediately saw him as a convenient target who they could use as a scapegoat to distract from the Jacob Blake shooting and the government’s abject failure to ensure basic law and order to citizens.”
Rittenhouse, attorney Pierce said, “is a brave, patriotic, compassionate law-abiding American who loves his country and his community. He did nothing wrong. He defended himself, which is a fundamental right of all Americans given by God and protected by law. He is now in the crosshairs of institutional forces that are much more powerful than him.”
The criminal complaint against Rittenhouse also backs a claim of self defense.
Image: Thinkstock
R. Cort Kirkwood is a long-time contributor to The New American and a former newspaper editor.
