TheQuartering [11/15/2022]

According to FoxNews:

The lawyer who represented Covington Catholic student Nicholas Sandmann during his defamation cases has joined Kyle Rittenhouse’s legal team, and says there will be “at least 10” defamation lawsuits against prominent figures and companies for comments against the teenager. 

“I’ve been hired to head the effort to determine whom to sue, when to sue, where to sue,” Todd McMurtry, who now represents Rittenhouse, told Fox News Digital in a phone interview Thursday morning. “We’re going to look at everything that’s been said, determine which of those comments are legally actionable and proceed from there.”

McMurtry said it’s “​​pretty much assured that there’s probably 10 to 15 solid” cases against “large defendants.” 

Rittenhouse was charged with two counts of homicide, one count of attempted homicide, and other charges after fatally shooting two men and injuring another during the Kenosha riots of 2020. He was ultimately acquitted of all charges in November of last year after testifying he acted in self-defense. 

Though the legal process for potential defamation cases is just beginning, McMurtry singled out Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook for a “factually false” designation on the platform that listed the Kenosha shootings as a “mass murder” incident. The designation resulted in Rittenhouse’s social media accounts being pulled down and restricting positive comments about the teenager. 

“Let’s just use for an example what Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg said about [Rittenhouse]. They said that he was involved in a mass murder incident,” McMurtry explained. “This was not a mass murder incident. It was clearly factually false.”

“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.”

Outrage erupted after Facebook and Instagram designated the shooting during the Kenohsa riot a “mass murder incident” before a trial or verdict, with the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board arguing in 2020 that such a designation hurt the teenager’s shot at due process and called the move an “alarming resort to censorship.” 

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, ultimately reinstated Rittenhouse’s social media accounts after his acquittal last year and lifted other restrictions.