Kyle Rittenhouse supporter loses defamation suit against man who called him racist online

A controversial Wisconsin man whose call to arms was answered by Kyle Rittenhouse lost his defamation case against another man who had called him a white nationalist on social media.

Kevin Mathewson, a former Kenosha city council member and controversial local blogger, had sued Raymond Roberts, of Sturtevant, for repeatedly calling him a racist on Facebook and claiming that he was training his children to become suicide bombers, but a jury rejected his defamation complaint, reported the Racine County Eye.

“He has no reputation, in my opinion," Roberts told the jury.

Roberts testified that he believed his claims about Mathewson, with whom he had interacted online for years, to be true, and so did not rise to the level of defamation, and the jury agreed.

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Mathewson created the "Kenosha Guard" Facebook page asking armed citizens to respond to civil unrest in August 2020 following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, and his call was answered by groups with white nationalist ties, such as the Boogaloo Boys, and Rittenhouse, who fatally shot two protesters and wounded a third.

Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of the killings, was later acquitted of homicide on grounds of self-defense.