Since Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all criminal charges in the fatal 2020 shooting in Kenosha, Wis., some pundits have speculated that he has grounds to sue some news organizations for defamation. But a claim being shared on social media that he filed a lawsuit against two stars of the talk show “The View” isn’t accurate.
“Kyle Rittenhouse files a $60 million lawsuit against Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg,” one such post said.
It was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
This claim originated on Potatriots Unite, a self-described satire site. The story with a headline saying the Rittenhouse sued Behar and Golberg is labeled as “Weird Hero Fetish Satire.” The story quotes “the family’s spokesman, Joe Barron,” but the actual spokesperson for the Rittenhouse family, David Hancock, told the Associated Press that the claim isn’t true.
“The Rittenhouse team, Kyle and the rest of his lawyers, have not filed any legal actions against any organizations or any person in particular,” Hancock said.
We rate this post False.
This fact check was originally published by PolitiFact, which is part of the Poynter Institute. It is republished here with permission. See the sources for this fact check here and more of their fact checks here.
