Kyle Rittenhouse was reportedly “banned” from the Marines after seriously failing the military entrance exam. Here are the facts

Claim:

Kyle Rittenhouse scored so low on the ASVAB test, required to enlist in the U.S. armed forces, that he was permanently disqualified from service in the Marines.

Rating:

During the first week of April 2024, many accounts on police brutality, had done so poorly on an entrance exam to the United States. Marine Corps that he was permanently barred from enlisting in the service. The messages included an email stating Rittenhouse attempted to join the Marines in January 2020 as proof.

The claim quickly spread across social media, with accounts defending or mocking Rittenhouse’s actions. We sought to determine whether the image was authentic and whether the claim it supported was true.

The email reportedly came from a Kenosha police field report, which Snopes is trying to obtain. We have cropped the image to allow for better readability. (User X @ChasinWhiteCaps)

In an article about Rittenhouse written less than a week after the events in Kenosha, the Washington Post noted that he attempted to join the Marines in early 2020 but was “disqualified from service after discussing his options with recruiters.” Yvonne Carlock, the department spokeswoman who spoke to the Post for the story, did not explain why he was disqualified from the department, citing privacy guidelines. This does, however, confirm that Rittenhouse has been disqualified from service.

Is the image real?

Our first task was to determine if the image was real, and our first lead came from a post on Reddit. In the comments section of the post, a user claimed that the email was real and came from a particular page of the Kenosha Police Department’s field report on Rittenhouse’s actions. This user claimed the information was accessible via a public records request. So, Snopes sent such a request to the Kenosha Police Department and the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department.

Under Wisconsin’s open records law, police departments and sheriffs must either turn over requested records “as soon as possible and without delay”, or inform the interested party that the request has been refused. If they choose to deny the request, they must write and explain why. Information found on the Kenosha Police Department website suggests we would receive a response within 10 business days, which is the standard time frame listed for requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

In the meantime, we have found messages on which showed an additional set of emails from the same document. We now had a list of the names of five FBI agents. Snopes was able to find public information confirming that three of them were indeed FBI employees. A fourth appeared in Google search results, but did not appear on linked pages. The fifth person, Rebecca-Lynn Laufer, was the only person we could not find any public information about. This level of accuracy either means it’s a very detailed fake, with real FBI employees, or it’s real.

Next, we researched the source of the information. One message David Hancockwho claimed to have advised Rittenhouse during his trial but had since regretted his actions, credited the image to another X account run by a man named Paul Prediger.

In Kenosha, Rittenhouse shot two people and injured a third. Prediger, formerly known as Gaige Grosskreutz, is the man Rittenhouse injured but did not kill. Snopes has contacted Prediger, Hancock and Rittenhouse for comment and is in direct contact with Prediger. He was able to provide the 938-page Kenosha police report on Rittenhouse, which contained the email in question on page 572.

Even though this massive document would be incredibly difficult to forge, Snopes has rated this claim as “Research in Progress” pending our own independent records request to be satisfied so that we can use it to cross-reference the materials provided by Prediger. This story will be updated with more information as we receive it.

Was the low test score the reason Rittenhouse was not allowed to enlist?

This part of the claim was much simpler: It is almost certainly false that Rittenhouse was unable to enlist because of a low test score.

There are two ways to interpret the wording of the email in question, and only one of those interpretations leads to the idea that Rittenhouse was disqualified due to a low test score.

The first interpretation of the above sentence from the email is that the “and” serves as the “therefore”. This could be rephrased as: “his test score was well below the minimum required, and so he was disqualified from enlisting.

But the test mentioned in the article, the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, is not something you are allowed to take just once, according to the U.S. Army website:

The second interpretation of the phrase corresponds more clearly to the wording: the word “and” means “additionally”. This reading implies that Rittenhouse’s ASVAB score was very low, but that is not the reason he was disqualified.

So why was Rittenhouse disqualified?

Snopes is currently investigating this matter and will update the story with more information as we learn it.

Until then, we can say with relative certainty that Rittenhouse’s test scores were low, but that was not the reason he was permanently disqualified from enlisting in the Marines.

Sources:

Armus, Teo et al. “Before fatal shooting, Kenosha teen suspect idolized police.” Washington PostNovember 19, 2021. www.washingtonpost.comhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/27/kyle-rittenhouse-kenosha-shooting-protests/.

“ASVAB test and preparation.” Goarmy.Com, https://www.goarmy.com/how-to-join/steps/asvab.html. Accessed April 5, 2024.

“Lawyers for man shot during Kenosha protest say Kyle Rittenhouse is eluding them.” PBS News HourFebruary 23, 2023, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/attorneys-for-man-shot-during-protest-in-kenosha-say-kyle-rittenhouse-is-evading-them.

“https://Twitter.Com/ChasinWhiteCaps/Status/1775215543345152056?t=bXkATrDsKusuyBLdA5IZ7w.” X (formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/ChasinWhiteCaps/status/1775215543345152056?t=bXkATrDsKusuyBLdA5IZ7w. Accessed April 5, 2024.

“Https://Twitter.Com/DanLamothe/Status/1299054126446321664.” X (formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/DanLamothe/status/1299054126446321664. Accessed April 5, 2024.

“https://Twitter.Com/DaveHan06/Status/1774751376889057282?t=7SPMuO1FwhUVnA30w79byg.” X (formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/DaveHan06/status/1774751376889057282?t=7SPMuO1FwhUVnA30w79byg. Accessed April 5, 2024.

“Https://Twitter.Com/Daybreaker/Status/1774986889067364539.” X (formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/daybreaker/status/1774986889067364539. Accessed April 5, 2024.

“Https://Twitter.Com/Jamesstout/Status/1775163288990429628.” X (formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/jamesstout/status/1775163288990429628. Accessed April 5, 2024.

“Https://Twitter.Com/Joekassabian/Status/1775187855934914724.” X (formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/joekassabian/status/1775187855934914724. Accessed April 5, 2024.

“Https://Twitter.Com/realTuckFrumper/Status/1775267238616113355.” X (formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/realTuckFrumper/status/1775267238616113355. Accessed April 5, 2024.

“https://Twitter.Com/RyanShead/Status/1774586223295946995.” X (formerly Twitter), https://twitter.com/RyanShead/status/1774586223295946995. Accessed April 5, 2024.

“Man who survived Rittenhouse shooting seeks to change name.” AP NewsSeptember 30, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/kyle-rittenhouse-wisconsin-shootings-kenosha-e4e1dbad9f01dbe7503800672908a302.

you/Dookie1. “Kyle Rittenhouse can’t join the military because he’s too stupid.” Reddit.Com/r/BehindthebastardsApril 3, 2024, https://www.reddit.com/r/behindthebastards/comments/1bu4grq/kyle_rittenhouse_is_banned_from_joining_the/.

Uphues, Bob. “Recognized cops.” Brookfield Monument by the RiverApril 11, 2017, http://www.rblandmark.com/2017/04/11/cops-recognized/.

“Wisconsin Open Records Law.” Ballot, https://ballotpedia.org/Wisconsin_Open_Records_Law. Accessed April 5, 2024.