Kyle Rittenhouse traveled to Kenosha ‘expecting violence’, prosecution claims in closing arguments

Kyle Rittenhouse was a 17-year-old who traveled to Kenosha ‘expecting and anticipating violence’ on the night of August 25, 2020.

He was a teenager looking for the ‘thrill’ of telling people what to do, ‘running around with an AR-15’ with ‘neither the honor nor the legal right to do so.’

This is what Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger stood to tell the jury as he began the state’s closing arguments in Kenosha County Courthouse today.

Urging the jury to ‘keep an open mind,’ he said, ‘In America it’s hard these days. There’s polarization, but this is not a political case and there’s common ground here.

‘I asked you at the beginning of this to raise your hand if you think human life is more important than property.

‘We can also agree that no one person’s life is more important than another. All life is sacred.’

Now that they have heard all the testimony and all the evidence, Binger told the jury, ‘It’s time to search for the truth.’

Closing arguments in the murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse began Monday. He stands accused of shooting dead two and injuring a third

Kyle Rittenhouse is seen with his AR-15 patrolling the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin on the night he killed two men and injured a third 

Binger told them he would focus in on the murders – the shootings of two unarmed men – and the wounding of another.

He asked, ‘Consider whether it is honorable to provoke and shoot unarmed people. Whether it is honorable when a person lies about being an EMT.’

He told them to ‘consider Anthony Huber’ a man whom he painted as a ‘hero’ who had ‘rushed towards danger to save other people’s lives.’

This was a characterization from which Binger had backed away during the state’s case, when the defense threatened to bring in evidence of Huber’s violent criminal past.

Binger said he was going to focus on the murders, then address some background issues and finally tie it all into the jury instructions.’

In a chilling moment Binger moved to ‘re-enact’ what he claimed was visible on blurry drone footage, controversially brought before the jury.

According to Binger, Rittenhouse can be seen placing down the fire extinguisher he was carrying, pausing and raising his gun – pointing it at an unseen person off screen.

Binger, held Rittenhouse’s AR-15 aloft, as he spoke, pointing it on the corner of the court.

This, he said, was the moment Rittenhouse ‘lost the right to self-defense’ and ‘provoked’ the violence that followed.

Binger had promised that he would be replaying many of the video exhibits from the night and so he did – pointing out the narrative on which the State has insisted. It is a story in which Rittenhouse is the agitator, the aggressor, the one making the calls and taking the shots.

Using still images and showing distressing images and video once more Binger said he would ‘debunk’ the claim that Rosenbaum ever threatened to kill Rittenhouse that night as has been testified.

He noted that it was the only part of the night ‘not caught on video’ and that was because ‘there was no threat.’

Rittenhouse fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum (left), 36, with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle after Rosenbaum chased Rittenhouse across a parking lot and threw a plastic bag at him shortly before midnight on August 25, 2020. Moments later, as Rittenhouse was running down a street, he shot and killed Anthony Huber (right), 26, a protester from Silver Lake, Wisconsin

Binger showed the jury ‘the defendant murdering Joseph Rosenbaum from three different angles:’ videographer Drew Hernandez’s video, drone footage and FBI surveillance footage

For the first time during the entire trial demonstrators could be heard outside the courtroom as Binger rose to continue his closing statement Monday afternoon

Several onlookers in court turned towards the windows, puzzled by the commotion. But it was not possible to make out what was being shouted below and the court’s view was blocked by heavy blinds

Binger showed the jury ‘the defendant murdering Joseph Rosenbaum from three different angles:’ videographer Drew Hernandez’s video, drone footage and FBI surveillance footage.

He contended that at best this was a ‘fist fight.’ Rosenbaum was unarmed.

Binger said, ‘What you don’t do is you don’t bring a gun to a fist fight.’

He dismissed Rittenhouse’s claim that Rosenbaum was trying to take his gun and use it on him or other as ‘cockamamie’

He said, ‘You lose the right to self-defense when you’re the one bringing the gun.’

In an odd moment of grandstanding Binger told the court to ignore talk of Joshua Ziminski – a man whom he has repeatedly referenced during the trial and the one who fired a shot moments before Rittenhouse turned and shot Rosenbaum.

Now Binger said he planned to ‘carve Ziminski out of this case,’ he was ‘a red herring.’

He added, ‘I’ll deal with him at his arson trial in January.’

Where the defense has made much of the speed at which events happened – all four shots were fired within 0.76 seconds – Binger said that the ferocious pace made Rittenhouse more culpable.

He said, ‘He doesn’t get a pass by pulling the trigger fast. He could have stopped after the first shot.’

Instead, he said, he ‘tracks Mr. Rosenbaum’s body down,’ shooting as he fell.

He said, ‘No-one else made him do it.’

Binger’s voice rose, shrill as he said that the only way the jury could find self-defense was, ‘If you believe that Joseph Rosenbaum was reaching for the defendant’s gun.

‘And that a reasonable person in the defendant’s position, with the AR-15 strapped to his chest, would think that Joseph Rosenbaum was even capable of taking the gun away, as he’s falling to the ground with a fractured pelvis.

‘And then that Joseph Rosenbaum was going to turn the gun around and kill the defendant. And other people.

‘You’d have to find all of those things.’

For the first time during the entire trial demonstrators could be heard outside the courtroom as Binger rose to continue his closing statement Monday afternoon.

Several onlookers in court turned towards the windows, puzzled by the commotion. But it was not possible to make out what was being shouted below and the court’s view was blocked by heavy blinds.

Attorney Thomas Binger enters the courtroom at the Kenosha County Courthouse on Monday 

Despite that fact that Gaige Grosskreutz (pictured) testified that he had pointed his gun at Rittenhouse Binger stated, ‘At no point does Mr. Grosskreutz point his gun at the defendant’

Turning his attention to Grosskreutz, Binger characterized him as a person who ‘could have aimed and fired [his own gun] but he did not’. Rittenhouse is seen on the ground before shooting Grosskreutz

Binger once again played the footage filmed by Richie McGinniss as he flipped Rosenbaum onto his back and desperately tried to locate a wound to put pressure on. Rosenbaum’s groans were uncomfortably audible.

‘You want to talk about medics? You want to talk about people who cared? You just saw them,’ Binger said. ‘And while that’s going on the defendant flees, callously disregarding the body of the man he just shot and killed.

‘And while he’s running off he’s lying to the crowd about what just happened.’

Rittenhouse told a passer-by that Rosenbaum ‘pulled a gun’ on him.

Binger said, ‘The defendant is lying to save his own skin instead of going to help the person that he just shot and killed.’

Rittenhouse told Gaige Grosskreutz and witness Jason Lackowski, both of whom he ran past as he left the scene, that he ‘did not shoot anyone.’

In fact, Binger insisted, Rittenhouse did nothing to persuade the crowd that he was ‘anything other than a threat to kill again.’

The crowd has the right to defend themselves, Binger insisted. And they did so – tackling Rittenhouse as he fled.

An unknown man knocked off Rittenhouse’s hat, ‘jump-kick man’ tried to kick him in the face, Huber swung his skateboard at him

Turning his attention to Grosskreutz, Binger characterized him as a person who ‘could have aimed and fired [his own gun] but he did not.’

He said, ‘That is a decision he was not prepared to make. He is not the type of person who is just willing to take a person’s life in an instance – unlike the defendant.’

Despite that fact that Grosskreutz testified that he had pointed his gun at Rittenhouse Binger stated, ‘At no point does Mr. Grosskreutz point his gun at the defendant.’

According to Binger, Rittenhouse had, ‘No remorse, no regard for human life.’

He was ‘an active shooter’ who ‘walks away like he’s some sort of hero in a Western, without a care in the world about what he’s done.’

Judge Bruce Schroeder dismissed count 6 from Rittenhouse’s rap sheet – illegal possession of a firearm

Earlier Monday morning, Judge Bruce Schroeder dismissed count 6 from Kyle Rittenhouse’s rap sheet – illegal possession of a firearm.

In the latest blow to the beleaguered prosecution, Judge Schroeder dropped the charge Monday morning after the defense successfully argued that it is illegal for anyone under 18 to carry a ‘short-barreled rifle’ – a rifle with a barrel shorter than 16 inches – but it is legal to carry a longer rifle in Wisconsin.

Rittenhouse was 17 at the time of the shootings and the prosecution was forced to concede that the AR-15 carried by Rittenhouse on August 25, 2020 was more than 16 inches, which is of legal length. 

‘Well then,’ Judge Schroeder stated, ‘Count six is dismissed.’  

The prosecution staked its case on evidence that, the judge warned Monday morning, could see the case, ‘fall like a house of cards.’

Judge Schroeder made his comment as he and attorneys for both sides finalized the instructions to be read to the jury ahead of closing arguments this morning.

The judge was referring to enhanced drone footage that, the state contends, shows Rittenhouse pointing his gun at people before he shoots Joseph Rosenbaum.

The defense argued unsuccessfully for the images, blurry at best and enhanced using an algorithm that the state’s expert witness admitted to not understanding, to be excluded from evidence.

Judge Schroeder ultimately decided to allow the images into evidence, stating that he would ‘allow the jury to decide the important factors in this case.’

But today, when the point was raised once more, he warned Assistant District Attorney James Kraus, ‘This [technicality] is not being used to decide which camera I’m going to buy at a store. This is being used to decide whether someone is guilty or not of a crime.

‘I don’t want to be meddling or commenting on the evidence, but I will tell you this assuming that there is a conviction one or more assuming that other motions don’t contaminate the outcome if it comes out at some time that the method used produces unreliable results this is going to fall like a house of cards.

‘You’re basing an extremely important part of the evidence on something I’m really queasy about. But this is the jury’s case not mine.’

He concluded, ‘I’m not going to make an instruction on it, but I’ve made a record on the high risk I think it presents to the case.’  

As he continued his closing statements Binger sought to paint two of the men shot by Rittenhouse as ‘heroes’ and to dismiss the notion that Rosenbaum was ever any sort of threat, describing him as nothing but a ‘little dog’

Rittenhouse and the other ‘vigilantes’ who gathered in Kenosha that night were, Binger said, ‘Just wannabe soldiers, acting tough. Just a small part of the deluge of chaos tourists trying to feed off what we were going through, despite everything we did to try to tell them to go away, stay out’

As he continued his closing statements Binger sought to paint two of the men shot by Rittenhouse as ‘heroes’ and to dismiss the notion that Rosenbaum was ever any sort of threat, describing him as nothing but a ‘little dog.’

‘Bark, bark, bark!,’ he said, ‘He really ain’t going to do anything.’

Showing close-up and graphic images of Grosskreutz’s shredded bicep Binger said,’ ‘It’s hard to look at but this is what we’re dealing with. When you fire an AR-15.

‘I guarantee you the defendant had no clue what his gun was capable of, he didn’t concern himself what he would be doing to other people.

‘Let’s not flinch away from this it’s important we understand what that gun was capable of that night. It killed two people and it did this to Mr. Grosskreutz’s arm.’

The way Binger told it Rittenhouse, ‘should have known’ that pointing his gun as someone else would have ‘provoked’ Rosenbaum.

He ‘should have known,’ the crowd was aware of the fact he had just shot someone. And he ‘should have known’ that they believed him to be an ‘active shooter’

According to Binger, ‘That crowd did something that honesty I’m not sure I’d have the courage to do.

‘Anthony Huber was different, ‘jump-kick man’ was different, Gaige Grosskreutz was different.’

According to Binger, ‘That crowd was full of heroes.’ Huber was a’ hero’ and Grosskreutz too – both men, he insisted, were acting within their own right to defend themselves as they tried to, ‘stop an active shooter from shooting others.’ 

The defense will state their closing arguments following Binger’s statements Monday. Mark  Richards, defense attorney for Kyle Rittenhouse, is seen pacing the courtroom 

In contrast, he said, Rittenhouse was ‘a fraud,’ falsely claiming to be a certified EMT. He was, ‘like a quack doctor practicing without a license,’ and putting lives at risk.

He wrapped a sprained ankle, helped someone with a cut on their hand. Binger mocked, ‘Yay.’

And on the other hand, he killed two people and shot another. Binger snapped, ‘When we balance your role as a medic that night…I don’t give you any credit.’ 

He dismissed Rittenhouse and lionized Grosskreutz, saying, ‘For him to call himself a medic is an insult to anyone like Gaige Grosskreutz who spent hundreds of hours training to become an EMT.’ 

Binger described him as a ‘hero,’ who ‘rushed into danger,’ and he told the jury that Grosskreutz never pointed his gun at Rittenhouse, despite Grosskreutz’s own testimony that he did.

He told the court that Grosskreutz could well have pulled the trigger of his own gun and shot Rittenhouse, but that he didn’t – ‘because he’s not that type of person.’

And he had harsh words for Rittenhouse’s witness stand performance Wednesday. He said, ‘When he testified on Wednesday, he broke down crying about himself not about anyone he hurt that night, no remorse.’

Rittenhouse and the other ‘vigilantes’ who gathered in Kenosha that night were, Binger said, ‘Just wannabe soldiers, acting tough. Just a small part of the deluge of chaos tourists trying to feed off what we were going through, despite everything we did to try to tell them to go away, stay out.’

Binger mocked the ‘threat’ presented by Rosenbaum that night. ‘What did he do?’ he said, ‘He tipped over a porta-potty that had no-one in it. He swung a chain. He set an empty trailer on fire. He said some bad words. He said the N-word.’

He said, ‘I’d probably try to prosecute him for arson, but I can’t because the defendant killed him. That’s the way we deal with arson. We prosecute you. We don’t execute them.’

Binger said he would be the voice for Rosenbaum because he wasn’t there to speak for himself. The picture he painted was far from flattering in its bid to minimize any threat that he night have presented.

At 5ft 4, Binger said Rosenbaum had ‘Napoleon complex.’ He was a ‘babbling idiot.’

He said that the crowd were ‘shoving him around like a rag doll,’ and that he was, ‘a mouthy little guy…a little dog.’

According to Binger, the jury was there to decide facts, ‘not to buy pathetic excuses.’

He said, ‘If you panic that’s not reasonable. That is an excuse. And if you’re 17, you don’t have experience…you’re in over you head…those are excuses.

‘They do not erase your personal responsibility for your own actions.’

In fact, Binger insisted, none of the people whom Rittenhouse shot, ‘posed an imminent threat to the defendant’s life or to cause great bodily harm.’

‘Put yourself in the defendant’s position,’ he told them. ‘Would you have made any of the reckless decisions he did? Would have you done the same thing?

‘Would you have gone out after curfew with an AR-15 looking for trouble? Would you have used the gun to protect an empty car-lot?

‘No reasonable person would have done these things. The defendant provoked everything.’

Wrapping up a closing statement, that lasted two hours and eight minutes, Binger concluded that there was no doubt that Rittenhouse had committed the crimes.

He said ‘The question is whether or not you believe his actions were legally justified.

‘I submit to you that no reasonable person would have done what the defendant did and that makes your decision easy.

‘He is guilty of all counts.’

EXCLUSIVE: ‘Binger was set up for failure!’ Kenosha DA knew the case against Kyle Rittenhouse was a losing proposition and passed the buck to Thomas Binger whose presentation has been marked with missteps and clashes with the judge

–Martin Gould 

The choice of prosecutor for Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder case could be a precise pointer as to how little confidence the County District Attorney had in securing a conviction.

Mike Graveley, the Kenosha County DA would normally have taken the case himself, but instead handed it down to prosecutor Thomas Binger, whose presentation of the case in Wisconsin has been marked with missteps and clashes with Judge Bruce Schroeder.

‘Binger was set up for failure,’ one Kenosha legal insider told DailyMail.com. ‘Graveley is the superstar and he knew this one was sure to tarnish it.’

According to conservative outlet Milwaukee Right Now, Graveley ‘pawned the case off to his unfortunate assistant district attorney, Thomas Binger, who was left to spin gold out of a pile of self-defense straw.’

Now court observers believe that even if Rittenhouse is found guilty, Binger’s performance has given him good grounds for appeal.

‘He has said things in court that have been ruled out of order, but once they have been said, you can’t unring that bell,’ Kevin Mathewson, a criminal defense investigator and former Kenosha City alderman told DailyMail.com.

‘This is how Binger has always operated. He pushes the envelope as far as he possibly can — but this time the whole world is watching him.’

Binger, 51, a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School is no rookie. He has been an assistant DA in Kenosha County since 2014, and first prosecuted cases in Milwaukee County back in 1999

Binger’s presentation of the case in Wisconsin has been marked with missteps and clashes with Judge Bruce Schroeder

Mathewson, who was unsuccessfully sued over a Facebook page in which he asked for people to turn up with guns to defend property during the August 2020 Kenosha riots, has been a frequent critic of Graveley’s office.

But he says he respects the DA’s prosecuting skills. ‘He is by far the best prosecutor in the office and he should be the one prosecuting the Rittenhouse trial — the most high-profile and difficult case his office is ever likely to handle.

‘It’s not that he hides from publicity. Earlier this year he prosecuted a teenager called Martice Fuller who killed his high school sweetheart and shot at her mother.

‘That was a high-profile case, but it wasn’t a difficult case to prosecute,’ added Mathewson. ‘There was video of the shooting.

‘Just about any prosecutor could have got a conviction.’

Mathewson is not the only one who is hammering Graveley for his absence from the Rittenhouse case. Graveley himself said he would not lead the prosecution as he was investigating the case against the cop who shot Joseph Blake, leading to the unrest in Kenosha during which Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber.

Gravely — who was named Wisconsin’s prosecutor of the year earlier this month — decided way back in January that the officer should not be prosecuted for the shooting which left Blake paralyzed. The DA also said he has to prosecute another case which will likely start before the Rittenhouse case is over.

But those excuses are getting short shrift from some, who believe Rittenhouse either should never have been prosecuted or should have faced lesser charges.

‘It’s time to put DA Mike Graveley’s picture on a milk carton,’ wrote Milwaukee Right Now. 

Graveley’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Binger has at times seemed out of his depth as Judge Schroeder and Rittenhouse’s defense team tear into him for a series of missteps.

Former Milwaukee County assistant district attorney Daniel Adams described Binger’s case as ‘incredibly underwhelming.’

‘He’s got nothing,’ Adams told the Associated Press. ‘I just don’t understand it. What are we doing here? We’re all kind of scratching our heads.’

Binger, 51, a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School is no rookie. He has been an assistant DA in Kenosha County since 2014, and first prosecuted cases in Milwaukee County back in 1999.

On his LinkedIn page the father-of-three says: ‘I was a criminal prosecutor handling misdemeanor and felony cases, including illegal firearms cases. I also handled child welfare cases, specializing in termination of parental rights cases.’

Mike Graveley, the Kenosha County DA, would normally have taken the case himself, but instead handed it down to prosecutor Thomas Binger. ‘It’s time to put DA Mike Graveley’s picture on a milk carton,’ wrote Milwaukee Right Now

After six years prosecuting, he went into private practice as director of litigation for a business law firm before joining the Kenosha County DA’s office.

He ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for the post of District Attorney in neighboring Racine County in 2016, saying: ‘In the last two years as a prosecutor, I have won 13 jury trials. I have convicted murderers, rapists, child molesters, drug dealers, drunk drivers, home-invading burglars and men who abuse women.’

One of the most notable cases he has previously prosecuted was of a former New Jersey fire captain who was jailed for five years in 2017 for possessing child pornography and exploiting a child for sexual purposes.

Binger insisted the sentence was not enough, telling Essex News Daily, ‘The state recommended 16 years.’

He was also forced to withdraw a case against Guy Smith, a trucker who was found with a gun in his cab. Smith’s defense attorney pointed out the law specifically allowed handguns in vehicles without a concealed carry permit, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

The Smith case was also heard by Judge Schroeder.

But those cases had nothing like the media spotlight that has shone on the Rittenhouse case.

Binger’s role has been controversial since the start. He took the unusual step of objecting to the attempt by California attorney John Pierce to represent Rittenhouse, saying in a six-page motion to the court that Pierce’s presence could ‘materially prejudice’ the case.

He said Pierce’s ‘personal financial difficulties raise significant ethical concerns,’ adding: ‘Given his own substantial personal debts, his involvement with an unregulated and opaque ‘slush fund’ provides ample opportunity for self-dealing and fraud

‘Money that should be held in trust for the defendant may instead be used to repay Attorney Pierce’s numerous creditors.’

Pierce, who claimed the case against Rittenhouse was a ‘political prosecution’ eventually withdrew, leaving the defense in the hands of lawyer Mark Richards.

Binger has continued to clash with Judge Schroeder throughout the trial and even in pre-trial hearings 

Binger clashed with Schroeder in pre-trial hearings. Last month the judge ruled against him saying that the men shot by Rittenhouse could not be called ‘victims’ during the trial but allowed a defense motion which allows them to be called rioters, looters or arsonists.

Binger said those words were more loaded than ‘victims.’

The prosecutor also lost the chance to link Rittenhouse to the right-wing Proud Boys movement.

And Schroeder later slammed him after he argued that defense lawyers should not be able to tell jurors about the destructive actions of Joseph Rosenbaum, one of the men Rittenhouse admits killing, including setting a dumpster on fire.

‘All we’re talking about is arson. We’re talking about being loud and disorderly,’ Binger said.

Schroeder immediately cut him off. ‘I can’t believe some of what you’re saying,’ he said in a raised voice. ‘All we’re talking about is arson? Come on!’

During this month’s trial, Schroeder reprimanded Binger for bringing up a video in which Rittenhouse had talked about wanting to shoot shoplifters. Schroeder had previously ruled that inadmissible

‘You’re an experienced trial attorney and you’re telling me when the judge says, ‘I’m excluding this’ you decide to bring it in because you think you’ve found a way around it,’ Schroeder asked.

Binger replied: ‘You can yell at me if you want. I was acting in good faith.’

Judge Schroeder responded: ‘I don’t believe you. When you say you were acting in good faith, I don’t believe you. There better not be another incident.’

Rittenhouse’s defense accused Binger of knowingly attempting to throw the proceeding because they were going badly for the state. 

 The defense on November 10 demanded a mistrial with prejudice, which would mean that Rittenhouse walks free and a retrial is not possible. Schroeder said he is taking that request under advisement.