USA Today reports
The lead attorney representing accused Kenosha, Wisconsin, gunman Kyle Rittenhouse said he resigned his position with a defense fund expected to benefit his 17-year-old client out of concern for the lawyer’s troubled financial history.
Attorney John Pierce said Friday that he made the move earlier this week to avoid any “appearance of conflict” related to a series of legal disputes in which Pierce and his firm have been accused of defaulting on millions of dollars in obligations to the firm’s financiers, according to court documents.
Pierce, who has repeatedly promoted the #FightBack Foundation fund on Twitter, has vowed to assemble a “Seal Team” of former prosecutors and defenders to assist his client, accused in last week’s shooting that left two dead and another wounded during a night of demonstrations following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Rittenhouse, the lawyer has asserted, acted in self defense.
So far, donors have poured more than $700,000 into the fund, founded prior to the shooting with a broader mission to “bring lawsuits to stop the left’s lies.” Pierce and Lin Wood — an attorney who first won notoriety representing Richard Jewell, falsely accused in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic bombing — are founding members of the foundation. #FightBack Foundation Inc. was incorporated in Texas effective Aug. 12, according to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.
