Kyle Rittenhouse says he was “used” by his former attorneys, Lin Wood and John Pierce. The 18-year-old told host Tucker Carlson in an interview that aired on Fox News Monday that Wood and Pierce were responsible for Rittenhouse languishing in jail for 87 days because they were “trying to raise money so they can take it for their own benefit, not trying to set me free.”
The bombshell allegation was one of many riveting moments during the interview. Rittenhouse struck me as honest, decent, sympathetic and earnest—a boy scout and a patriot who has been a victim of a politicized prosecution and a liberal establishment media hell-bent to destroy him. The interview—like the high-profile trial in which the jury unanimously found him not guilty on all charges—is a cultural watershed. It exposed the rampant mendacity, propaganda and corruption at the heart of the Fake News media.
For months, CNN, MSNBC and The New York Times had portrayed Rittenhouse as a white supremacist monster, an armed vigilante and psychotic murderer who went to Kenosha, Wisconsin on Aug. 25, 2020 to slaughter innocent social justice protestors. The very opposite was true: Rittenhouse was the victim, who acted in obvious self-defense, while his Black Lives Matter/Antifa attackers were the aggressors and violent criminals who pursued and sought to kill him. In the interview with Carlson, America saw a completely different picture of Rittenhouse—one that shattered the media’s dishonest narrative.
Yet, Rittenhouse’s claims about his former attorneys having taken advantage of him (and abusing him) were one of the most shocking aspects of the interview.
“I was in jail for 87 days, and this goes—this follows in with Lin Wood, who—Lin Wood was raising money on my behalf, and he held me in jail for 87 days, disrespected my wishes, put me on media interviews—which I should never have done, which he said, oh, you’re going to go talk to The Washington Post, which was not a good idea,” he said. “Along with John Pierce, they said I was safer in jail instead of at home with my family.”
Rittenhouse added that his time in jail was “87 days of not being with my family for defending myself and being taken advantage [of], being used for a cause by these—by John Pierce and Lin Wood, trying to solicit—not solicit, trying to raise money so they can take it for their own benefit, not trying to set me free.”
According to Rittenhouse, instead of being out of jail by mid-September 2020, Wood and Pierce were responsible for keeping him behind bars until Nov. 20. Rittenhouse said that, for much of his time in jail, he had no access to running water and wasn’t able to shower for over three weeks—enduring deplorable and harsh conditions.
If true—and I stress if—then what Wood and Pierce did was not only immoral, but unconscionable. However, it begs the question: Is Rittenhouse’s allegation true? Did Wood and Pierce use Rittenhouse, fleecing him of massive sums of money while encouraging him to languish in jail for months on end? To be perfectly frank, I believe it about Pierce given his checkered past and shady background. But Lin Wood? That I find harder to believe.
On my talk show Tuesday morning, I urged Wood to respond to Rittenhouse’s explosive allegations, stressing that the famous attorney’s credibility was on the line. If the accusations were false, then Wood needed to address them openly and publicly. To my pleasant surprise (and completely out of the blue), Wood called my show and went on the record.
Wood stressed that, unlike Pierce, he was Rittenhouse’s civil attorney; responsible primarily for raising money for the then-17-year-old’s defense and bail fund. Wood said that through the Fightback Foundation, a non-profit group based in Texas, he was able to raise most of the funds for Rittenhouse’s bail. Moreover, Wood emphasized that it was Pierce who was then the criminal lawyer for Rittenhouse, and thus it was Pierce—not Wood—who orchestrated the strategy of keeping Rittenhouse in jail for 87 days. According to Wood, he only spoke with Rittenhouse once (by phone) and this was in early September. Also, Wood says he never took a dime for his work on behalf of Rittenhouse; and that the 18-year-old defamed Wood by alleging financial impropriety.
Yet, Wood does not blame Rittenhouse. In fact, he still believes the young man is a good, decent—and innocent—person, who should never have been charged with any crimes and was railroaded by a politically vindictive, left-wing prosecutor. Wood, however, is convinced that Rittenhouse is getting very bad advice, especially from his spokesperson David Hancock, a former Navy Seal.
“The story that he’s [Rittenhouse’s] telling timed to do so on Tucker Carlson is not true. At a time when he should be celebrating his victory and I think doing a thank you to Fightback he viciously went after attacking me with no factual basis,” Wood said. “I believe that Kyle is in the influence of members of the deep state. I think Dave Hancock is a deep state operative. Part of their goal has been for the last year and a half to destroy Lin Wood.”
Yet, why is the deep state after the pro-Trump attorney? For Wood, the answer boils down to one thing: the stolen November 2020 presidential election.
“I don’t why. I’m just a lawyer who supported Trump. … I’ve been vocal in terms of demanding that the 2020 election be fixed,” he said. “For some reason the deep state has decided they want to take Lin Wood out. And I believe they’re using Kyle Rittenhouse to try to fire one last shot at me. It’s not going to work. Because I’m telling the truth. And truth will prevail over lies.”
Wood also alleges that Carlson—and much of Fox News—has become controlled opposition, profoundly compromised by the deep state and the kind of corruption (and censorship) prevalent throughout the corporate media establishment. In particular, Wood asks why no one from Fox or Tucker Carlson’s show called him to get his side of the story, especially in the wake of the explosive accusations leveled by Rittenhouse.
“No one has ever called me before this interview and asked me what happened? It was one-sided. It was a set-up. And the only thing I can conclude is that Tucker Carlson for whatever reason—either because of ideology or money or blackmail—is playing ball with the deep state,” Wood said. “Those are the only explanations I can come up with. He’s certainly not interested in the truth. Or he would’ve had me on and talk to me before the interview to get my side of the story.”
When I asked Wood if anyone from Fox News contacted him following the Rittenhouse interview, he said, “No, crickets … I never heard from anybody before or afterwards.”
He added: “They never sought to get my side of the story because they didn’t want the truth. They wanted a one-sided, false story to use, to accuse and demean me. It’s that simple.”
Wood, however, directs his harshest criticisms of Fox News toward host Sean Hannity. And if true—and again I stress the word if—then Hannity has a lot to answer for. According to Wood, Hannity (once a long-time friend) is a fraud and hypocrite, who allegedly told the pro-Trump attorney in private messages that the former president lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden fair and square.
“Sean Hannity has been my friend for 20 years. Three days after the election [Hannity] told me Trump lost and it was never going to be changed,” Wood said. “There are text exchanges that show it. He told me Trump lost; it was over. He bet me a steak dinner that he was right and I was wrong. And I was sitting there going ‘Sean, what are you talking about? We need to be fighting for Trump. This election was stolen. It’s obvious.’ And he said: ‘Nope. It wasn’t.’”
Wood added: “And I said to myself and to him: I will never talk to Sean Hannity again despite a 20-year friendship. Because I concluded on that day that Sean Hannity was not loyal to the United States of America. Because if you concede within days that Trump lost after you have been allegedly four years being his friend on Fox News something’s not right.”
These are stunning allegations. For months after the 2020 election, Hannity railed against voter fraud and electoral corruption, especially on his radio show. Wood is saying that it was all an act; that what Hannity claims in public is completely different from what he believes in private. There is a way to find out the truth: Wood should release his private text messages with Hannity. Someone is definitely lying. If it’s Wood, then his career should be over. But if he’s not, then everyone will know why Fox News is so determined to smear and destroy Lin Wood.
-Jeffrey T. Kuhner is host of “The Kuhner Report” on WRKO AM-680 in Boston. His daily show airs 6:00-10:00 am EST. He can be reached at: JeffreyKuhner@iheartmedia.com
To listen to the full interview of Lin Wood on The Kuhner Report, listen here:
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