A now discredited Fox News report claiming that the DNC hack was an inside job carried out by a murdered staffer was pushed to publication by top White House officials, including President Trump, according to court documents filed on Tuesday.
Washington, DC private investigator, Rod Wheeler, the plaintiff behind the lawsuit, is alleging that the Trump White House, an ally of the administration, and a Fox News reporter conspired to misquote him in a story published in May about the unsolved murder of former DNC staffer Seth Rich.
That story suggested that Rich was responsible for passing along hacked DNC emails to Wikileaks before he was killed. The article relied on quotes from Wheeler who was investigating the murder, but Wheeler stated that his comments were wholly fabricated by Fox News, at the behest of the Trump administration.
Wheeler is alleging defamation, and seeking to recoup monetary damages from the fallout.
The suit claims that the true motivation of the Fox story was to “shift blame from Russia and help put to bed speculation that President Trump colluded with Russia in an attempt to influence” the election.
Introduced in the lawsuit are Fox News contributor and supporter of Trump, Ed Butowsky, and Fox reporter Malia Zimmerman, who wrote the article in question. Wheeler claims Butowsky approached him in February and offered to bankroll Wheeler’s probe into Seth Rich’s murder. Butowsky added that he was working with Zimmerman who was conducting her own investigation into the matter for Fox News.
In the weeks leading up to the publication of the Fox report, the lawsuit asserts that Butowsky was in “regular contact with Trump administration officials,” including Press Secretary at the time Sean Spicer, presidential advisor Steve Bannon, and Department of Justice Public Affairs Director Sara Flores.
In court filings, Wheeler detailed a meeting he and Butowsky had with Spicer at the White House, where he provided Spicer with his investigatory notes about Seth Rich, and was told to keep the Press Secretary “abreast of developments.”
Two days before the Fox News story ran, Wheeler received a text message from Butowsky, stating that President Trump wanted the article published swiftly.
“Not to add any more pressure but the president just read the article. He wants the article out immediately. It’s now all up to you. But don’t feel the pressure,” Butowsky’s message to Wheeler read.
On May 16, the same day the Fox News story about Seth Rich was published, Press Secretary Sean Spicer was asked about it during the White House briefing. He claimed he was “unaware” of it.
Spicer added that “it would be highly inappropriate” for him to comment on an ongoing investigation.
Only after the story was published did Wheeler realize it was based largely on quotes he never gave to Fox reporter Zimmerman, including comments pertaining to exchanges between Rich and Wikileaks, and others alleging that people within the DNC were blocking the murder investigation. Neither of those two claims were accurate.
When Wheeler confronted Butowsky about the misquotes, the lawsuit contends that Butowsky informed Wheeler that the quotes were included “because that is the way the President wanted the article.”
Butowsky now claims he never had communications with the President. Fox News has not commented on the lawsuit.
The lawsuit further details an aggressive behind-the-scenes effort by Butowsky to ensure that Fox News put the story in a frame helpful to the Trump administration. The night before publication, Butowsky pushed that angle in an email to Fox News producers and on-air talent, including Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade, hosts of the popular morning show Fox and Friends.
“One of the big conclusions we need to draw from this is that the Russians did not hack our computer systems and steal emails and there was no collusion,” Butowsky wrote.
A week after the story went up, Fox News retracted it, claiming it was “not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all out reporting.” The outlet came under pressure from members of Seth Rich’s family, DNC officials, DC police, and other journalists who pushed back against Fox’s findings.
Wheeler’s lawyers further allege that Fox News’ defamation of their client was based on race, noting that their client is black. The lawsuit states: “Fox’s marginalization of Mr. Wheeler is simply part of its systemic pattern and practice of discriminating against people of color.”
The suit was filed in district court in the Southern District of New York.
