While the two cases are very different—Johnny Depp didn't kill anybody, for a start—the Depp defamation trial has apparently inspired Kyle Rittenhouse to step up his own legal efforts. "Johnny Depp trial is just fueling me, you can fight back against the lies in the media, and you should! " the teen tweeted on Wednesday. He has hired Todd McMurtry, the attorney who helped former Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann sue CNN and other outlets for defamation, Business Insider reports. Rittenhouse fatally shot two men during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, but was acquitted on all counts last year.
"I’ve been hired to head the effort to determine whom to sue, when to sue, where to sue," McMurtry tells Fox News. "We're going to look at everything that's been said, determine which of those comments are legally actionable and proceed from there." He says it's "pretty much assured" that there are 10 to 15 "solid" cases against "large defendants." He says major targets will be Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg because the platform designated the shooting as a "mass murder incident."
"To call somebody a mass murderer is seriously defamatory," says McMurtry. He says Facebook also banned Rittenhouse from posting and restricted positive comments about him in what amounted to a "serious effort to destroy his character." Earlier this year, Rittenhouse said he was looking at suing "quite a few politicians, celebrities, athletes," including President Biden, Oprah Winfrey, and LeBron James. (More Kyle Rittenhouse stories.)
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