Hours after the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol claimed the lives of five people, including a Capitol police officer, an attorney representing Kyle Rittenhouse sent out an appeal.
“Kyle started the process of stopping the tyranny. Others must now follow,” tweeted the attorney, John M. Pierce, before making a fundraising plea. “We will need resources to take our country back. Help Kyle at FreeKyleUSA.com. And stay tuned for a new organization that will help thousands more who need help like Kyle does. #USA #NeverSurrender.”
The combination of legal fundraising, merchandising, and idolizing of Rittenhouse and his shootings continues to provoke a base that is already prone to advocating violence.
Rittenhouse is the Illinois teen who gained national fame and adulation among the far right when he shot three people, two fatally, at a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on August 25. He has pleaded not guilty to charges that include two counts of first-degree intentional homicide; he remains free until his trial, which is tentatively set to begin in March.
As the United States faces an unprecedented threat of far-right violence, hate groups and organizations continue to celebrate Rittenhouse as a folk hero. While the events of January 6 splintered the American political right, high-profile political figures—as well as anonymous Internet users—are united in using Rittenhouse to fundraise, recruit, and radicalize other young people.
The national spotlight on Kenosha, where a police officer was filmed shooting Jacob Blake seven times in the back on August 23, attracted a dangerous mix of groups to the responding protests and riots. In a massive failure by police and sheriff’s deputies from around the state, as well as the National Guard troops stationed in downtown Kenosha, scores of heavily armed white men were allowed to patrol the crowds uncontested after curfew.
Rittenhouse, then seventeen years old, was among this volatile mix of groups coalescing in downtown Kenosha. On the night of August 25, in a flurry of terrible decisions and vile intentions, Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, thirty-six, and Anthony Huber, twenty-six, and seriously wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, also twenty-six. The assault rifle he used was not legally obtained, bought for him by a friend.
Videos of the shooting were shared widely, and far-right media personalities, sitting politicians, and even some federal law enforcement officials quickly threw support behind Rittenhouse’s claim that he acted in self-defense. At the same time, white supremacist groups and violent accelerationists online were celebrating Rittenhouse in memes, saying his actions were revolutionary—even noble.
“You know how we begin our rebellion? When the next Rittenhouse happens, how many brave patriots will all at once revolt?” wrote one user on the far-right website thedonald.win in December 2020. “We would be unstoppable if we overwhelm our opposition. Constitution-hating cops can’t stop a million+ patriots if they all act in one day.”
Currently out on a $2 million bond funded by close associates of President Trump, Rittenhouse has flaunted his temporary freedom. After Rittenhouse’s arraignment in early January, his mother drove him to a bar in Racine County in Wisconsin, where he posed for pictures wearing a “FREE AS FUCK” T-shirt (with the lettering of the last word partially obscured); he also joined alleged members of the white supremacist group Proud Boys in throwing up the white power “OK” hand sign.
Kyle Rittenhouse in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin on January 5, wearing a shirt that reads "Free as fuck."
Kenosha prosecutors filed a motion on January 13 barring Rittenhouse from associating with milita or known white supremacist groups. The Proud Boys—vocal defenders of Rittenhouse—“have been tied to the breach of the United States Capitol Building on January 6,” prosecutors noted in court records first reported by the Kenosha News.
Kyle Rittenhouse with several others displaying "OK" hand sign.
While Rittenhouse’s lead defense attorney, Mark D. Richards, was quick to distance his client from “any known hate group,” online channels associated with the self-titled “Western chauvinist” Proud Boys celebrated the recent news. And attorney Pierce, who is representing Rittenhouse against potential civil actions, is continuing to raise funds by making inflammatory statements about the case.
In a since-deleted tweet back in early September 2020, Pierce stated that Rittenhouse was akin to the “brave unknown patriot at Lexington Green who fired the ‘Shot Heard Round The World’ on April 19, 1775. A Second American Revolution against Tyranny has begun. #FightBack.”
In an interview from late December, Pierce and Kyle Rittenhouse’s mother, Wendy Rittenhouse, nodded in agreement as InfoWars anchor Owen Shroyer yelled about the “deep-state criminal mafia” who wants to put Rittenhouse behind bars. Shroyer and his conspiracy-theorist boss Alex Jones marched with the Proud Boys in Washington, D.C., at a rightwing rally on December 12, 2020, when attendees burned “Black Lives Matter” flags and banners in the streets.
Shroyer would later give a threatening speech to a MAGA crowd the night before the January 6 insurrection, saying “the crooked politicians that occupy our Capitol are in fear right now” and are “hiding in tunnels” like rats.
Pierce started his campaign for Rittenhouse under Georgia defamation attorney L. Lin Wood’s #FightBack Foundation Inc. a “slush fund” formed in August of 2020 by a rotating door of far-right lawyers and Trump allies. Pierce subsequently stepped back from involvement in Rittenhouse’s criminal defense amid allegations of fundraising impropriety.
Lin Wood, one of the most prominent supporters of Trump’s presidential election conspiracy theories, helped fundraise for Rittenhouse’s $2 million bail along with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. On January 6, Wood suggested that Vice President Mike Pence be executed by firing squad for certifying the electoral college results in favor of Joe Biden. He has since been banned from Twitter. Lindell visited the White House during Trump’s final days in office urging the outgoing President to invoke martial law to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.
Besides lawyers Wood and Pierce, far-right media personalities including Tucker Carlson and Ann Coulter espoused their support and adoration for Rittenhouse after the shooting. Coulter went as far as saying she wanted Rittenhouse “as my President.”
Even sitting politicians threw their support behind Rittenhouse. In November, Representative Anthony Sabatini, Republican of Florida, tweeted, “KYLE RITTENHOUSE FOR CONGRESS.” And Representative Paul Gosar, Republican of Arizona, tweeted the day after the shooting that Rittenhouse was “100% justified.” Gosar would go on to become a key player in the “Stop the Steal” movement.
Indeed, the “Stop the Steal” movement has been led by some of attorney Pierce’s closest professional friends. Before financial difficulties and substance abuse problems led him to step away from his ailing law firm Pierce-Bainbridge, he represented high-profile Trump allies like former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani and Trump advisor George Papadopoulos, who eventually received a pardon from Trump.
Rittenhouse’s family and attorney continue to use his popularity among the far right to fundraise, though accusations of fraud and grifting have marred the public-relations campaign that Pierce runs. Pierce maintains he is sticking around to sue anyone who has called Rittenhouse a white supremacist, including President Joe Biden. Those would be hard lawsuits to win, since the photos of Rittenhouse flashing a white power hand sign while drinking with alleged Proud Boys are now preserved on the Internet.
The Rittenhouse family, aided by Pierce, have faced continuous instances of deplatforming in their fundraising efforts. Before their SquareSpace website “FreeKyleUSA.com” was temporarily shut down, Rittenhouse’s family sold merchandise and apparel in an online store with “Free Kyle” as the slogan. The website is live again, though the store is no longer available.
They reportedly raked in thousands of dollars towards his legal defense fund using the web payment service DonorBox, which has been criticized in the past for providing services to hate groups. Donations apparently go into a trust controlled by Wendy Rittenhouse. DonorBox did not respond to multiple requests for comment. On the reinstated website, donations are now submitted through a PayPal link to the “Kyle Rittenhouse Defense Fund.”
Several other companies, including Printify, Printiful, and GoFundMe, had previously removed Rittenhouse’s family’s products and funds from their services after receiving complaints. Before the social media app Parler was taken offline due to threats of violence posted posted by users, “@FreeKyleUSA” solicited donations for Rittenhouse’s defense.
The combination of legal fundraising, merchandising, and idolizing of Rittenhouse and his shootings continues to provoke a base that is already prone to advocating violence. The Parler accounts associated with the Proud Boys and their members regularly posted in support of Rittenhouse. On Twitter, the @FreeKyleUSA account has gained more than 1,700 followers, and a cult-like fan base. The proprietor of the account is not named.
In less-public spaces online, accelerationists and outright racists idolize Rittenhouse in memes. Telegram channels associated with the Proud Boys amplify messages such as “Hail King Kyle,” and “Free Kyle Rittenhouse.” In other far-right Telegram channels, accounts with names such as “Zoomer Waffen'' share edited videos of the Rittenhouse shooting with messages like, “I need a hero.”
On January 7, during an appearance on an obscure live-stream show with Wendy Rittenhouse, Pierce called President-elect Joe Biden a “pretender,” and praised those who lost their lives during the previous day’s insurrection as “brave souls.” Rittenhouse’s mother nodded in agreement, adding that “us patriots have to stick together, we can’t back down.”