On Thursday, the hedge fund manager posted a number of tweets defending the 18-year-old after he and his wife Neri watched “several hours” of testimony from the defendant as he gave evidence at his trial in Kenosha.
Ackman wrote that after hearing the evidence, he believed Rittenhouse was acting in self-defense when he shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber last August, as well as injuring Gaige Grosskreutz.
Ackman also condemned the media who attempted to paint Rittenhouse in a bad light in the aftermath of the shootings at the Black Lives Matter protests.
“Our first hand impressions of Kyle were materially different from those we had previously formed based on media reports and opinion pieces that we had consumed,” Ackman tweeted.
“I have always been frustrated to read an inaccurate press report about a subject I know well, yet somehow I continue to believe other articles in the same newspaper about subjects I know less well,” he added.
“Media and political bias are dividing our country and destroying lives. While we have not heard the entire trial, based on our assessment of Kyle on the stand, we believe that he will be found innocent by the jury.”
Ackman also encouraged others to watch Rittenhouse’s testimony and not base their views on the defendant on what they have seen or read in the media during coverage of the highly divisive case.
“With respect to my own political bias, I am not a gun owner, nor a member of the NRA,” he added. “On balance, I support stronger gun regulations and removing loopholes in the sale of guns. Unfortunately, it seems that society’s view of Kyle is innocence depends more on one’s views about gun control rather than on what actually took place last August.
“Kyle Rittenhouse’s life is at risk. Justice demands a fair trial. Society would benefit greatly if politics did not enter the courtroom and convict innocent people.”
Just 20 minutes after sending his last tweet regarding Rittenhouse, Ackman tweeted again to say someone from the media had called him to ask if his Twitter account had been hacked.
“That is, the reporter couldn’t conceive of the idea that I could believe that Kyle is innocent because I am not a right winger. Crazy,” Ackman said.
The main outcome of the Rittenhouse trial rests on whether the jury believe that the then 17-year-old was right to shoot and kill his victims during the disorder in Kenosha.
Under Wisconsin law, a person is allowed to use deadly force in self-defense if “necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm.”
Rittenhouse’s lawyers have argued that the suspect came to Kenosha to provide medical assistance and protect the city from the protesters, and and only fired his semi-automatic rifle while being chased and attacked by an angry mob.
The prosecution argue that Rittenhouse, who is not a trained Emergency Medical Technician [EMT] despite claiming to be, helped to initiate the violence that night and had no legal right to kill or injure his victims.
Ackman has been contacted for further comment.
