Dear Commons Community,

Kyle Rittenhouse should stay off TV and out of the public eye, change his name and quietly “start his life over,” his attorney, Mark Richards  urged yesterday during an interview on Fox News.

“I think there’s a lot of people who want to use Kyle for their own needs,” Mark Richards said. “People want to use his name, get it out there so they can get some publicity. I think it’s cheap,” he added.

Rittenhouse has already appeared on  Fox News with host Tucker Carlson that he supports Black Lives Matter — and telling a Carlson documentary team that the jury was “right” to acquit him in the fatal shooting of two men and the wounding of a third.

He’s also loudly being pursued for a congressional internship position by Republican Reps. Madison Cawthorn (N.C.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.) and Matt Gaetz (Fla.).

Richards on Sunday called the lawmakers’ exploitation of Rittenhouse “disgusting.”

They’re “raising money on it, and you have all these Republican congressmen saying, ‘Come work for me,’” he said. “They want to trade on his celebrity, and I think it’s disgusting.”

Richards told Fox that his advice for Rittenhouse would be to “change his name and start his life over.”

He added: “There’s a lot of a lot of people who I don’t think have his best interests at heart — and probably want to make him a symbol of something I don’t think he wants to necessarily be associated with.”

Richards said he has already had a “talk” with his client advising him to change his name and staying out of the public eye.

“Once you give up your name and your likeness and you join those causes, I think a lot of people will use you for their own purposes,” he said. “You won’t be able to control it.”

Richards added: “I hope he makes the right choices. I would think his life would be a lot easier being anonymous and going on with his life, as opposed to trying to keep some of his fervent supporters happy.”

Check out Richards’ interview in the video clip above. He talks about his advice for Rittenhouse beginning at the 3:02 mark.

Tony