POLITICS
QAnon Believers Rattled After Kyle Rittenhouse
Calls Extremist Lawyer Lin Wood 'Insane'
Prominent figures in the far-right conspiracy group
turned on the acquitted gunman after followers had previously embraced him.
Mary
Papenfuss
By
Mary
Papenfuss
27/11/2021
02:12pm GMT
QAnon
followers were taken aback this week when acquitted gunman Kyle Rittenhouse
slammed extremist lawyer and longtime QAnon acolyte Lin Wood as “insane.”
As
Rittenhouse and Wood faced off against each other, QAnon backers were speaking
out in support of the lawyer — or the gunman — indicating a possible fracture
in the far-right conspiracy movement.
Wood, who
is known for pushing Donald Trump’s election lies as a member of the former
president’s legal team, was one of Rittenhouse’s first attorneys after the teen
was arrested last year for fatally shooting two unarmed men and wounding a
third with at a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Rittenhouse
said in an interview on the cable channel NewsNation on Tuesday that he and his
mother fired Wood last December because “he was going on with all this QAnon
and election fraud stuff, and just stuff we don’t agree with.”
He added:
“He’s insane. ... He thinks he’s God and he just says all these weird things.”
Rittenhouse
has also accused Wood of mishandling money the attorney raised to bail him out.
Rittenhouse
told Tucker Carlson on Fox News that Wood raised $2 million for bail, but then
advised the teen to stay in jail where he would be “safer” for a total of 87
days. Wood also “put me on media interviews, which I should never have done,”
Rittenhouse complained to Carlson.
He added:
“I was being used for a cause.”
Now
Rittenhouse wants to use the money raised for him to pay off his current
attorneys.
Wood, who
has discounted Rittenhouse’s complaints, told NewsNation he can’t simply hand
over the money to Rittenhouse because it was raised as part of the charity he
established, the FightBack Foundation, and he must comply with tax law.
The lawyer
said he is “open” to using funds to help pay Rittenhouse’s defense bills. But
Wood also claimed that his organization spent $2.7 million on Rittenhouse’s
defense before the teen signed on with new attorneys.
QAnon
influencer John Sabal, better known as QAnon John, posted a message on
Wednesday to his more than 70,000 Telegram subscribers, writing: “Not too smart
to shit where you sleep, Kyle,” Insider reported.
QAnon
influencer Ron Watkins’ followers accused Rittenhouse of being part of a
“psyop” to divide QAnon followers.
But Wood
was also garnering some negative comments. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.),
who has peddled QAnon conspiracy theories, blasted Wood earlier this week as a
“horrible person” after what Rittenhouse had to say about him.
Wood has
reached out on Twitter to QAnon acolyte and Trump’s onetime national security
adviser Michael Flynn, asking for his help and support.
The lawyer
is convinced there’s a growing “F-Lin” plot, he wrote on Telegram.
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