Nicholas Sandmann’s Lawyer Joins Kyle Rittenhouse’s Legal Team Tasked With Holding Media Companies Accountable For Defamation
Kyle Rittenhouse’s legal team has gained quite the valuable asset in the form of Todd McMurtry, the lawyer who represented Covington Catholic student Nicholas Sandmann during his defamation trials against corporate media.
“I’ve been hired to head the effort to determine whom to sue, when to sue, where to sue,” McMurtry told Fox News Digital. “We’re going to look at everything that’s been said, determine which of those comments are legally actionable, and proceed from there.”
Further, McMurtry declares that it’s “pretty much assured that there’s probably 10 to 15” solid legal cases against “large defendants” that spread misinformation prior to the Kenosha riots of 2020, and during Rittenhouse’s trial in November of last year.
McMurtry then proceeded to single out co-founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, as well as Facebook for a “factually false” designation of the Kenosha shooting as a “mass murder” incident, before a verdict was even reached.
In September of 2020, just a few days after the incident took place, Facebook deleted a video shared by media analyst Mark Dice, who wrote on Twitter, “Facebook just removed a video I posted showing Kyle Rittenhouse offering help to a wounded protester in Kenosha, and are threatening to delete my entire account.”
Dice took to YouTube to condemn Facebook’s shady practices, declaring that he “didn’t glorify, celebrate, or praise” Rittenhouse, explaining, “I simply showed a non-graphic video and explained, in very plain terms, exactly what the video showed. ”
A Facebook spokesman confirmed to Breitbart News that posts “in support” of Rittenhouse were being removed on account of the company designating the incident as a “mass murder.”
“We’ve designated the shooting in Kenosha a mass murder, and are removing posts in support of the shooter, including this one,” said the unnamed spokesman. The statement agrees with the notification Dice received upon sharing the video on the platform.
As per the notification shared by Dice, Facebook defines “dangerous” things like, “terrorist activity, organized hate or violence, mass or serial murder, human trafficking, criminal or harmful activity.”
Ahead of his trial, Rittenhouse was facing several charges for shooting three men during the riots that took place in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August of 2020.
The charges included first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree recklessly endangering safety, and possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18, among others. In November of 2021, the Kenosha County Courthouse jury acquitted Rittenhouse of all five charges he was facing.
According to Rittenhouse’s lawyer, some of the social media platform’s questionable actions included Rittenhouse’s personal social media accounts being deactivated, and massive censoring of comments showing any kind of support for then 17-year-old.
“Let’s just use for an example what Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg said about [Rittenhouse],” McMurtry went on, adding that the social media platform perpetually said Rittenhouse “was involved in a mass murder incident.”
He explained, “This was not a mass murder incident. It was clearly, factually false,” adding, “To call somebody a mass murderer is seriously defamatory.”
“And then to use the power of social media to basically… censor any views that would take opposition to that mass murderer statement is a serious effort to destroy his character. And it was seriously mistaken, and seriously defamatory.”
What’s more, Rittenhouse’s lawyer also declared that Zuckerberg is “certainly going to be at the top of your list,” as he notes the social media platform’s false and defamatory statements, asserting these questionable practices are legally actionable, since his platform has an “outsized voice.”
“Facebook has an outsized voice, they can do a lot of damage, as compared to somebody maybe who has a small blog with 100 subscribers,” McMurtry elaborated, adding, “But we’re going to look at everything that we have access to, and that’s been published, and decide which ones are actionable.”
On Monday, Kyle Rittenhouse and his lawyer Todd McMurtry joined Fox News host Tucker Carlson, wherein the 19-year-old elaborated on the struggles he’s endured due to the blatant defamation campaigns pushed by corporate media.
“We are going to make the media pay for what they did to me,” Rittenhouse told Carlson. “They made it hard for me to live a normal life. I can’t go out into public. I can’t go to the store. It’s hard for me to go anywhere without security.”
He elaborated, “Doing basic things like taking my dog to the dog park is difficult. They made it really difficult to be normal, and they affected future job opportunities to me. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to work or get a job, because I’m afraid an employer may not hire me.”
Regarding what Rittenhouse and his legal team are planning to do with the tech companies that spread misinformation about the case, McMurtry explains that they will deal with social media platforms and celebrities that accused Kyle of being a mass murderer, or a white supremacist.
“Certainly Kyle was charged with a crime. News organizations are allowed to report on that. But calling somebody a murderer in certain circumstances can be actionable. Other things that media personalities, people on social media said were clearly defamatory,” McMurtry said.
Noting Carlson’s comment about Kyle being called a white supremacist by the media, McMurtry asserted, “I think your comment about calling Kyle a white supremacist is made up out of thin air. I don’t know how the media can claim that they didn’t make a statement made up out of thin air without engaging in actual malice, or most certainly negligence.”
“So, I think that we have some strong grounds to proceed. We are looking at… we’re starting to look at all those. We’re going to evaluate them, and look at opportunities to hold the media, and to hold tech accountable as Kyle’s promised,” he concluded.
In February of this year, after months of speculation, Kyle Rittenhouse officially announced that he was going to be taking legal action against corporate media, revealing that his legal team had decided to launch The Media Accountability Project.
“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 told Carlson at the time.
He continued, “I don’t want to see anybody else have to deal with what I went through, so I want to hold them accountable for what they did to me, because I don’t want to see anybody have to go through what I went through.”
Rittenhouse also disclosed that Star Trek: Picard actress and The View host Whoopi Goldberg was one of the names on his list for news organizations and/or individuals that he and his legal team were planning on suing, as well as The Young Turks founder Cenk Uygur.
“Well, right now, we’re looking at quite a few politicians, celebrities, athletes; Whoopi Goldberg’s on the list,” Rittenhouse told Carlson, explaining, “She called me a ‘murderer’ after I was acquitted by a jury of my peers. She went on to still say that.”
He further disclosed, “And there’s others. Don’t forget about Cenk from The Young Turks. He called me a murderer before the verdict, and continues to call me a murderer.”
“We’re going to hold everybody who’s lied about me accountable, such as — everybody who lied [and] called me a white supremacist,” Rittenhouse elaborated before concluding, “They’re all going to be held accountable, and we’re going to handle them in a courtroom.”
What do you make of Kyle Rittenhouse’s initiative to hold Big Tech and media corporations accountable for defamation? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section down below, or on social media.
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