I can tell you with certainty that right now attorneys for newly acquitted defendant Kyle Rittenhouse are working overtime.

They are combing through every slanderous statement made about him. Every defamatory comment offered up before any facts were presented in a court of law is now under the microscope.

Who is at risk of being sued? Politicians, including President Joe Biden, then a candidate without presidential immunity, was the first high-profile person to declare that young Kyle was a member of an Illinois militia.

He ran a campaign ad condemning “white supremacists” featuring a photo of the then 17-year-old. Several members of Congress, like Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., took up the anti-Rittenhouse “white supremacy” chant.

Yes, politicians can be sued for slander for public statements made “outside their seat.”

But it is media organizations that are the obvious targets for lawsuits. Reporters and TV pundits pronounced Rittenhouse guilty from the get-go, despite available video showing the young man being chased, knocked down and attacked that fateful night.

Long before the trial facts emerged, MSNBC and CNN frequently repeated the theory that Rittenhouse acted as an “armed vigilante,” a “domestic terrorist” and “a racist.”

Even after the verdict one MSNBC host called Rittenhouse “this little murderous white supremacist.”

Despite media reports from CBS and others, Rittenhouse did not cross state lines “armed for battle.” (CBS has now issued a correction.) Rittenhouse lived with his mother in nearby Antioch, Ill., but had a job, his father and many relatives living in Kenosha. The law said he was legally allowed to carry the rifle he had that night.

Facts matter.

The three older men, each with a violent criminal history, who attacked Rittenhouse that night were white. And as open-minded people learned during the trial, Kyle was none of the derogatory things the media claimed.

Too many newspapers to mention in this limited space followed this erroneous storyline about Rittenhouse. And the false descriptions took on a tsunami quality on social media and in the public consciousness.

“We’ve designated the shooting in Kenosha a mass murder and are removing posts in support of the shooter,” Facebook said at the time. Any post with the words “Free Kyle” was blocked.

This kid never had a chance in the tainted court of public opinion. It’s a wonder Kenosha was able to seat an impartial jury.

Defenders of the guilty media will likely mention free speech as part of their defense. Funny how some can so firmly embrace one constitutionally protected right — freedom of speech — and forget about another, namely, the right to self-defense.

In 2019, Nick Sandmann, a high school kid from Kentucky, was accused by several major news outlets of aggressively confronting a Native American man during demonstrations in Washington, D.C. Their videotaped faceoff was described by CNN, ABC, CBS, The Washington Post, The New York Times and others as a confrontation instigated by an obviously racist teen wearing a Make America Great Again Hat. The full video revealed Sandmann had done no such thing.

Sandmann eventually sued seven media outlets for more than $800 million.

After out-of-court settlements he is now presumed to be a multimillionaire.

Sandmann recently wrote an op-ed saying, “The corrupt liberal media came for me, just like they came for Kyle Rittenhouse, and if he decides to sue I say go for it and hold the media accountable.”

That appears to be the best way to keep the political/media lynch mob in check.