Kyle Rittenhouse: No money exchanged for Tucker Carlson interview, documentary series

Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who was acquitted of murder last week after shooting and killing two people in Kenosha, Wis., during civil unrest there last year, said no money was exchanged between himself or his attorneys and Fox News for a high-profile interview and documentary series with prime-time host Tucker Carlson.

"Well, actually, with Tucker, they reached out to us and they wanted to film a documentary, there was no money exchanged," Rittenhouse said during an interview with NewsNation's Ashleigh Banfield, a transcript of which was shared with The Hill on Tuesday. "And we never even talked about money, and never even ... and it never was brought out ... it was about memorializing my story. And with the donors who donated I don't believe I owe them a political stance, but I do owe them a huge thank you."

Banfield had asked Rittenhouse about suggestions from critics that the agreement to have a documentary crew embedded with him during the trial "was all part and parcel of the money raising."

Last week, a top producer for Carlson shot down similar accusations.

"Neither FOX News Channel's Tucker Carlson Tonight nor FOX Nation's Tucker Carlson Originals paid for any access, footage rights, legal fees or made any other payments in the production of the episode on the Kyle Rittenhouse trial," Senior Executive Producer Justin Wells said in a statement.

During the wide-ranging interview with Carlson, which Nielsen ratings data showed more than 5 million people around the world watched, Rittenhouse blasted his former attorneys for what he said was an effort to take advantage of him and his case and said that he believed President Biden had defamed his character by linking him to white supremacy during the 2020 presidential campaign.

"It's actual malice, defaming my character, for him to say something like that," Rittenhouse said.

During the interview with Banfield, which is slated to air in full on Tuesday evening on NewsNation, Rittenhouse addressed a photo of himself making what many consider to be a white supremacist hand gesture at a bar with Proud Boys, an incident he said he was duped into by his former attorneys.

"I found out they were Proud Boys when I saw the headlines," Rittenhouse told Banfield. "I thought they were just a bunch of, like, construction dudes based on how they looked."

Rittenhouse said he fired his former attorneys "for putting me in situations like that with people I don't agree with."

NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Broadcasting, which purchased The Hill in August.