From railing against CNN to referring to the bible, judge in Rittenhouse trial stuns legal experts

This post was originally published on this site

While the judge presiding over the case of vigilante and little buddy of white supremacists Kyle Rittenhouse should be focused on the trial, he appears to be more interested in what CNN’s Jeffery Toobin has to say. 

Let’s get to the important thing here: Rittenhouse is a teenage wanna-be cop who drove himself from his home in Antioch, Illinois, to Kenosha, Wisconsin, with an AR-15-style .223 rifle in his car, wearing a backward baseball cap and harboring an intention to act as citizen police.

Videos from the night of the shooting show that several protesters attempted to disarm Rittenhouse, who fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, then Anthony Huber, 26, and seconds later Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, who was wounded.

]During a sidebar Wednesday, Judge Bruce Schroeder told the prosecution and defense he was concerned about the characterization of the trial by the media—particularly Toobin. 

“There are people on the media, on reputable sites, that are saying things that are totally bizarre,” the judge said Wednesday.

It’s presumed that Schroeder is referring to the media’s outrage and confusion over his ruling that the prosecution could not use the word “victim” in describing the three men Rittenhouse shot on the night of a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The judge also ruled the defense could use the words “arsonists,” “looters,” or “rioters.” 

“It is a very weird … ruling,” Toobin said. “What’s very weird is allowing this extremely pejorative, assuming the conclusion, words of ‘rioters’ and ‘looters,’ which all in all should help Rittenhouse’s defense a great deal.”

He added, “And, remember, it is not the — it is not the victims who are on trial here, it is Rittenhouse. So you can see why a lot of people are upset about this preliminary ruling, and we’ll see if the judge revisits it as the trial progresses.” 

Whether or not the word “victim” can be used varies from “from courtroom to courtroom at the judge’s discretion,” University of Wisconsin Law School Professor Keith Findley told CBS. But, Schroeder wasn’t happy about Toobin’s coverage of his decision, and instead of focusing on the task at hand and helping the jury do their jobs and hear testimony, Schoeder instead spent his time bashing the media. 

The judge erupted after prosecutors tried to play a video for the jury. The video was recorded by someone from The Rundown Live, who narrated the events the night of the Rittenhouse shooting. Rittenhouse’s attorney, Mark Richards, the same man who claimed self-defense for his client because one of the victims had a skateboard that could be used to decapitate someone and that Rittenhouse’s gun charge should be thrown out because he had a hunting license, objected to the narration of the video. 

Schroeder agreed with Richards and framed the issue as a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s confrontation clause. Then he went on a rampage about CNN’s Toobin. 

“This was on CNN, Jeffrey Toobin and another attorney there, and a comment was made that the ruling was incomprehensible, and I think they obviously are not familiar with this rule,” the judge said.

“I’m going to comment about the media again because there was a gentleman on TV night before last who said this is the most divisive case in the country to date. So anything that undermines public confidence in what happens here is very important.”

“It’s important for this town,” Schroeder said, “it’s important for this country, to have people have confidence in the result of this trial, whatever it is. And I don’t care what it is.”

Schroeder went on to defend his ruling by bringing the bible into the issue, discussing St. Paul and the Romans. Not sure how any of these bizarre rantings are connected to this trial, but I’m sure the defense attornies are thrilled by the distraction and diversions. 

You can hear the arguments in Rittenhouse’s trial in the video below.