Kyle Rittenhouse should turn down offers to enter the political arena, his criminal defense attorney says.
After a Wisconsin jury cleared the 18-year-old of all charges after he shot three people with an AR-15 style semiautomatic rifle last year, Rittenhouse was flooded with offers to intern for Republican lawmakers, Insider reports.
GOP Reps. Madison Cawthorn, Paul Gosar, and Matt Gaetz each offered him a chance to work in Congress, and Politico reported that Republican strategist Gregg Keller said he wouldn't be surprised if Rittenhouse spoke at a future CPAC.
But Rittenhouse's criminal defense lawyer, Mark Richards, told Insider that he thinks launching a political career would be the wrong move for his client.
"I don't think that's the wise thing," he said, adding: "But some of my clients haven't always done the wisest things."
Instead, Richards said he thinks it's time for Kyle Rittenhouse to "grow up" and "get on" with his life. "He's 18-years-old," he added.
Richards added that Rittenhouse should think of moving "out of the area" if he has hopes of living a normal life.
"That's not because I don't want Kyle living around me," he said. "It's because everybody's gonna know who he is, and that's gonna be trouble."
Richards joked that he's not Rittenhouse's "booking agent" but added that he thinks his client wants to return to his studies now that high profile trial is over.
"He wants to be a nurse, and I hope he's allowed to do that in some level of anonymity," the attorney said.
On Friday, November 19, a 12-person jury consisting of seven women and five men found the teen not guilty on all counts after three days of deliberation.
Rittenhouse, 18, of Antioch, Illinois, shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, and injured Gaige Grosskreutz on August 25, 2020, with an AR-15 rifle, during protests which took place in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
The teenager, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, had been charged with five felonies; first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, and two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety.
Watch the moment Kyle Rittenhouse breaks down as the jury delivers their verdict:
Per BBC News, Rittenhouse had denied all the charges and maintained he acted in self-defense.
His homicide trial started on November 1 and had seen testimonies from dozens of witnesses and footage taken of the night the then-17-year-old opened fire. Jurors were even played a graphic video of Rosenbaum lying still, unable to breathe after he was shot four times.
Rittenhouse's defense argued that the then-17-year-old had feared for his life last August.