Kyle Rittenhouse’s former lawyer predicted weapons charge dismissal a year ago in politically charged case

Kyle Rittenhouse’s future went to the 12-person jury Tuesday – in a case whose outcome has local residents bracing for the chance of renewed protests and Americans from coast to coast watching closely.

"He was legally entitled to have that firearm with him," he told Fox News Digital Tuesday. "And it's just clear as day from the evidence, most powerfully from the hundreds of angles of video evidence, that it was absolute perfect self-defense."

Pierce runs a private law firm named after himself as well as the National Constitutional Law Union, or NCLU — which he describes as "the ACLU but for the rest of us." He has long argued that the prosecution’s case against Rittenhouse is politically motivated and shouldn’t stand up in court.

"This case should have never been brought," he said. "In my view, this is blatant prosecutorial misconduct. It's malicious prosecution."