Nick Reiner’s Former Attorney Says He ‘Dropped Everything’ to Work on Murder Case, Shares Moment He Found Out About Killings

Nick Reiner’s former attorney, Alan Jackson, is opening up about the moment he and his team pivoted to take on the high-profile murder case.

Speaking during a live episode of the Hot Mics with Billy Bush podcast that aired Monday, Jan. 12, Jackson — who announced on Jan. 7 that he was withdrawing from Reiner’s case — said he received the call while in New York in the “very, very early morning hours” of Dec. 15.

“It was just hours into the circumstances,” Jackson said.

He explained that he was already aware of what had happened, but only “within minutes,” after news broke that Rob Reiner, 78, and Michele Singer Reiner, 70, had been killed on Sunday, Dec. 14. Nick Reiner has been charged with stabbing his parents to death.

Jackson said he had been “deeply, deeply invested” in the matter that brought him to New York at the time, but after the call came in, his focus immediately shifted.

Jackson appeared at Reiner’s initial court appearance on Jan. 7 following his arrest. He later withdrew from the case ahead of the arraignment on murder charges connected to the killings. Reiner is now being represented by a public defender, Kimberly Greene.

During the podcast, Jackson said he could not go into detail beyond what he shared at a press conference following his withdrawal. But he did describe the urgency with which his team responded.

“I have to show fealty and loyalty to the confidentiality that attends that kind of phone call … I can tell you that immediately thereafter, I dropped everything. I sent out a notice to my team here back in Los Angeles … I got on a flight nearly immediately,” Jackson said, after Bush asked whether the caller was a family member.

Jackson declined to say why he stepped away from the case, calling it a matter of “confidential communication,” and he pushed back on questions implying it was related to money.

“You can’t say that something happened with the retainer because I’ve never said that,” Jackson said.

“Obviously, something happened with my ability, and my team’s ability, to continue the representation, but I don’t want you, your audience, anybody else to start speculating as to what that might be. I have not said a word about it,” he added.

Reiterating earlier remarks that Reiner was “not guilty” of murder, Jackson said, “I have a lot of faith in the public defender’s office. I have a lot of faith in Kimberly Greene. I have a lot of faith in their representation. They’re outstanding, outstanding legal professionals.”

“I was doing a favor to the truth,” he continued. “We [had] worked at that time, it was about three weeks almost to the day, we had worked tirelessly. Nearly every waking hour, our entire team, and you, saw the team behind me.” He added that nearly his “whole firm” had been assigned to the case.

“It was important for me to right some wrongs that had been printed, lots of speculation, lots of people who want to believe certain things,” Jackson said.

“And so that with that statement, that’s as far as I’m going to go, I believe in it. I believe exactly what I said. What I said is the truth … under the laws of the state of California, he’s not guilty,” Jackson concluded.

Jackson also appeared on Kelly Ripa’s Let’s Talk Off Camera on Tuesday, Jan. 13, again declining to share details about the change in counsel.

He said his team would “always be committed to [Nick’s] best interests,” adding, “I want him to get the most robust defense that he possibly can get. I know he will, in the hands of the public defender’s office.”

Ripa later asked Jackson how he approaches cases that some people might view as “indefensible.”

“There’s very little in the law that’s indefensible,” Jackson said. “There’s a reason for that. I never approach a case like I’m just defending an individual.”

“We’re defending the Constitution,” he explained. “We’re defending an idea. We’re defending the foundation on which this country was built in terms of its justice system.”

Jackson said the U.S. justice system grants people a “God-given right” to liberty that is “built into the fabric of our country,” and noted that taking that liberty away is an “almost unthinkable” action.

“There are certain circumstances in which it’s absolutely appropriate,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with that, if it’s done perfectly.”

He added that with that mindset, “I don’t worry about who the person is,” because “the word indefensible never comes up,” saying, “It’s completely defensible, no matter who the person is, if the government doesn’t get it right.”

Jackson also acknowledged that mental health can be a factor in certain situations — clarifying that he was speaking generally and not specifically about Reiner’s case.

“We don’t punish in this country. We’re very civilized. We try to be civilized,” he said, before adding that the justice system punishes criminal conduct “where there’s an intent element.”

“The system is built to accommodate that, to address that,” Jackson said, referencing the concept of a not guilty by reason of insanity defense. He described it as applying when a defendant has a mental illness, “cannot form an intent,” and does not “understand the character and quality of [their] conduct.”