{"id":1049415,"date":"2021-11-23T18:43:54","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T23:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1049415"},"modified":"2021-11-23T18:43:58","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T23:43:58","slug":"pollak-kyle-rittenhouse-can-sue-jen-psaki-for-defamation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pollak-kyle-rittenhouse-can-sue-jen-psaki-for-defamation\/","title":{"rendered":"Pollak: Kyle Rittenhouse Can Sue Jen Psaki for Defamation"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpollak-kyle-rittenhouse-can-sue-jen-psaki-for-defamation%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1049415&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Jen-Psaki-reparations-640x335-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">Newly-acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse could sue White House press secretary Jen Psaki for defamation, following her claim Tuesday afternoon that he was linked to the Proud Boys and her implication that he was a violent \u201cwhite supremacist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Psaki <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2021\/11\/23\/white-house-refuses-to-say-whether-joe-biden-will-apologize-to-kyle-rittenhouse-for-claiming-he-was-a-white-supremacist\/\">dodged<\/a> a question about whether President Joe Biden\u2019s would apologize for his claim in 2020 that Rittenhouse was a \u201cwhite supremacist,\u201d despite the complete lack of evidence, and recent suggestions of a looming defamation lawsuit.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>As Breitbart News reported at the time, Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2020\/09\/30\/joe-biden-claims-without-evidence-kyle-rittenhouse-is-a-white-supremacist\/\">called<\/a> Rittenhouse a \u201cwhite supremacist,\u201d without evidence, more than a month after the Aug. 25, 2020, attack in which he was later charged \u2014 and acquitted \u2014 for multiple counts of murder.<\/p>\n<p>In&nbsp;Rittenhouse\u2019s trial, the prosecution presented no evidence of any \u201cwhite supremacist\u201d motives or affiliations. When asked during the trial to comment, Psaki <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2021\/11\/15\/white-house-condemns-vigilantes-as-kyle-rittenhouse-trial-wraps-up\/\">referred<\/a> to Rittenhouse as a \u201cvigilante,\u201d rather than correcting Biden\u2019s false accusation.<\/p>\n<p>As Breitbart News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/law-and-order\/2021\/11\/19\/pollak-joe-biden-can-be-sued-for-defaming-kyle-rittenhouse\/\">noted<\/a> following the acquittal, Rittenhouse has a good case for defamation against Biden. In an interview with Fox News\u2019 Tucker Carlson, Rittenhouse asked Biden to consider the facts, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/clips\/2021\/11\/22\/rittenhouse-biden-attacked-my-character-with-actual-malice-i-have-lawyers-looking-into-lies-about-me\/\">suggested<\/a> a lawsuit was possible.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>On Tuesday afternoon, Fox News\u2019 Peter Doocy asked Psaki whether the president would apologize, given Rittenhouse\u2019s acquittal, and the lack of any evidence that Rittenhouse was a white supremacist.<\/p>\n<p>Rather than answer the question, Psaki attempted to blame former President Donald Trump for the violence, claiming that he had \u201cactively\u201d supported white supremacists and militia groups during his presidency, and that the violence involving Rittenhouse was a consequence.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"video-src-attr\">The White House \/ YouTube<\/span><\/p>\n<p>She also claimed that Rittenhouse had \u201cposed for photos\u201d with the Proud Boys, a right-wing group.<\/p>\n<p>That issue actually emerged during the trial, when the prosecution tried to introduce evidence of Rittenhouse posing with members of the Proud Boys at a bar after he was released on bail. The defense said Rittenhouse had no idea who they were.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Bruce Schroeder rejected the photo, as CNN <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/09\/17\/us\/kyle-rittenhouse-pretrial-motions\/index.html\">reported<\/a> at the time, agreeing with the defense: \u201cThere\u2019s still no suggestion in the evidence \u2026 that this was anything other than a happenstance occurrence.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>The judge also said that even if it were to be shown that Rittenhouse later met members of the Proud Boys, that was not evidence that he had any connection with them at the time of the riot in Kenosha, Wisconsin, several months earlier, and therefore it was inadmissible as evidence in the trial.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, Biden\u2019s claim that Rittenhouse was a \u201cwhite supremacist\u201d came in September 2020 \u2014 months before that photograph was taken in January 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, Rittenhouse had just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rev.com\/blog\/transcripts\/kyle-rittenhouse-tucker-carlson-interview-transcript-november-22\">denied<\/a> the night before that he was ever in a \u201cmilitia,\u201d or knew what a militia was. In an interview with Carlson on Monday evening, he said that claims that he belonged to a \u201cmilitia\u201d were \u201cblatantly false,\u201d adding: \u201cI didn\u2019t know what a militia was until after the fact until November like 25th \u2026 I am not in a militia. I don\u2019t know what that is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Unlike the president, Psaki does not enjoy immunity from civil torts while Biden is in office. Rittenhouse is a public figure, and would have to show that she acted with \u201cactual malice,\u201d which is defined as \u201creckless disregard for the truth.\u201d That, in turn, usually requires plaintiffs to show that a defendant knew something was untrue, or could have known, but said it anyway.<\/p>\n<p>Given the outcome of the trial; the contrary evidence against tying Rittenhouse to white supremacist or militia groups; and the judge\u2019s rejection of a connection with the \u201cProud Boys,\u201d Psaki could arguably be said to have acted with \u201cactual malice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Psaki\u2019s claims connecting Rittenhouse to \u201cwhite supremacist\u201d groups, \u201cmilitia,\u201d and vigilantism could see her added to the growing list of media and political figures who are now vulnerable to defamation suits by Rittenhouse.<\/p>\n<p><em>Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of <\/em>Breitbart News Sunday<em> on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Neither-Free-nor-Fair-Presidential-ebook\/dp\/B08PNN54BB\">Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election<\/a>. His recent book, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.centerstreet.com\/titles\/joel-b-pollak\/red-november\/9781546099840\/\">RED NOVEMBER<\/a><em>, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at <a class=\"x5l\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/joelpollak\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\">@joelpollak<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Newly-acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse could sue White House press secretary Jen Psaki for defamation, following her claim Tuesday afternoon that he was linked to the Proud Boys and her implication that &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1049415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1049415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1049415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1049415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1049415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}