Lawsuit Claims President Trump Pressured Fox News To Release #FakeNews On Seth Rich’s Murder

UPDATED HERE: Fox has released a response.

This entire report is ugly.

Rod Wheeler, the former DC homicide detective who investigated Seth Rich’s murder, has filed a complaint against Fox News, Malia Zimmerman and Ed Butowsky, claiming that they got together to create a “false narrative” on Seth Rich’s mysterious murder. (And I don’t think it’s “conspiratorial” to describe his murder as such. It’s still a mystery. The “botched robbery” excuse doesn’t seem to hold water.)

The complaint also claims that President Trump was all about the exaggerated story.

The filing also includes a text message from Butowsky, a Texas wealth manager and Trump supporter, to Wheeler, in which he discusses the President’s eagerness to see the story published.

 

‘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 texted Wheeler according to the filing.

 

‘The motivation behind the article: establish that Seth Rich provided WikiLeaks with the DNC emails to shift the blame from Russia and help put to bed speculation that President Trump colluded with Russia in an attempt to influence the outcome of the Presidential election,’ states the lawsuit.

More:

The lawsuit, in which Wheeler requests a jury trial, also clams that just before Butowsky texted Wheeler he left the former detective a voice message.

 

‘A couple minutes ago I got a note that we have the full, uh, attention of the White House, on this. And, tomorrow, let’s close this deal, whatever we’ve got to do. But you can feel free to say that the White House is onto this now,’ says Butowsky in that message according to the filing.

With the White House’s interest in the story in mind, Zimmerman allegedly slipped two comments into the final story and attributed them to Wheeler, even though he never said them. Those quotes read, “My investigation up to this point shows there was some degree of email exchange between Seth Rich and Wikileaks,” and “My investigation shows someone within the DC government, Democratic National Committee or Clinton team is blocking the murder investigation from going forward. That is unfortunate. Seth Rich’s murder is unsolved as a result of that.”

If he really didn’t say either of those things and the team completely fabricated those quotes, I don’t blame him for being upset. That is, quite literally, #FakeNews.

Wheeler said that as a result of those quotes, he has ‘has suffered irreparable damage to his reputation and his career will likely never recover’ and lost all credibility with the public.

 

‘According to Butowsky, the statements were falsely attributed to Mr. Wheeler because that is the way the President wanted the article,’ reads the lawsuit.

 

‘Zimmerman, Butowsky and Fox had created fake news to advance President Trump’s agenda.’

If true, it’s messed up.

I’ve written about the Seth Rich case before. We still don’t know what happened, and I personally don’t buy the “he was at the wrong place at the wrong time” narrative. I believe there’s more to it. I believe he was personally targeted. Nonetheless, fake quotes are NEVER cool (unless they’re about Abraham Lincoln giving advice on internet decorum.)

h/t Daily Mail