Kyle Rittenhouse has said he fired his former lawyer Lin Wood because he thought the attorney “insane” for supporting QAnon and election fraud conspiracy theories.
The teenager—who on Friday was cleared of all charges related to shootings in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last August—has criticized Wood and another of his former attorneys, John Pierce, since being acquitted.
He told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Monday that the pair kept him in jail for longer than necessary while they raised his $2 million bail via their by their Fight Back Foundation.
Speaking to NewsNation’s Ashleigh Banfield on Tuesday, 18-year-old Rittenhouse said his mother, Wendy Rittenhouse, fired Wood in December 2020.
Asked whether this was because “the money that was in the pot” was not being put towards bail, Rittenhouse replied: “We fired him because he was, like, going on with all this QAnon and election fraud stuff, and just stuff we don’t agree with.”
Banfireld then asked “so it was his political views” which led to the family firing Wood, to which Rittenhouse said it was a “mixture of a little bit of that,” adding that his family’s belief that he was “insane” also played a factor.
He added: “Just how he, like how he thinks he’s God, and he just says all these weird things like: ‘We’re going to keep that boy in jail, because there’s not going to be any… civil or criminal cases come the election,’ which is just complete insanity.”
Rittenhouse was freed from custody in November 2020 after spending 87 days in jail.
The teenager alleges his former lawyers could have posted the money for him to be released in September but chose not to because they believed he was safer behind bars.
Rittenhouse told Banfield that Wood is now attempting to retrieve the $2 million he helped raise for his bond. The teenager said his lawyers are fighting to keep it in order to pay his legal bills.
“He filed that motion as the verdict was being read, as I was walking into court to learn my fate,” Rittenhouse said. “He was just trying to grift that money back when he said he raised it for me so I can be able to pay my legal bills.”
Pierce has said he has rejected any entitlement to the funds, calling the allegations “manufactured controversy…designed to discredit me.”
Wood was once best known as a top defamation lawyer whose high profile clients include Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, but more recently is better known as being an influential figure in the QAnon movement.
He worked with fellow QAnon-supporting attorney Sidney Powell in the widely mocked “Kraken” lawsuits that attempted to overturn election results in favor of Donald Trump.
Reacting to the interview on Telegram, Wood wrote: “I am sane and I am not God.
“I am reminded though that the same accusations were made over 2,000 years ago against Jesus Christ our LORD and Savior as grounds for crucifying Him when He died for our sins. His sacrifice was great, mine is small.”
On accusations that he intentionally left Rittenhouse in jail despite having enough funds for bail, Wood added: “Can you believe how dumb I am???
“I really wanted to keep Kyle Rittenhouse in jail as long as possible so that I could ‘grift’ off him, but then I made the horrible mistake of signing a personal guaranty on a $150,000 promissory note to actor Rick Schroder to get Kyle out of jail as soon as possible!!!
“Maybe Kyle is right. I must be insane.”
NYPD Blue actor Schroder revealed in November last year that he put up “hundreds of thousands” of dollars toward Rittenhouse’s bail and his defense.
Wood has been contacted for further comment.