Rod Wheeler, the lawsuit’s plaintiff, at the White House in April, where he and one of the defendants spoke to then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer about the Seth Rich investigation. “Doing my part to Make America Great Again!” reads Wheeler’s caption. (Photo via LinkedIn)

The bogus Fox story that claimed local police were covering up the murder of a D.C. resident on behalf of Democrats was cooked up by a network producer and a Trump supporter with encouragement from the White House, according to a new lawsuit.

Rod Wheeler is the man whose initial claims about 27-year-old Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich comprised the story published in mid-May, and now he’s suing Fox News, Fox investigative reporter Malia Zimmerman, and Fox contributor and Trump supporter Ed Butowsky for “irreparable damage to his reputation.” Wheeler says the report includes two fabricated quotes that were attributed to him.

Fox initially reported that Wheeler was hired as a private investigator by the Rich family to conduct a parallel investigation into the still-unsolved July 10, 2016 murder, and he had learned of “tangible evidence” that Rich was in communication with Wikileaks on the victim’s laptop.

By the time the dust cleared and the article was retracted a week later, none of those claims stood up.

Wheeler was hired by Ed Butowsky, not the family, to look into Rich’s murder. More pressingly, there was nothing on Rich’s laptop connecting him to the organization that released thousands of DNC and Clinton campaign documents.

So how did that dud come to be? According to Wheeler’s lawsuit, first reported by NPR, “Zimmerman, Butowsky, and Fox had created fake news to advance President Trump’s agenda.”

Butowsky and Zimmerman hoped that, if Mr. Wheeler could confirm that Seth Rich leaked the DNC emails to WikiLeaks, that would debunk reports the Russians were responsible for the DNC hacks. In turn, Butowsky and Zimmerman hoped that, if Mr. Wheeler could shift the blame for the DNC hacks from the Russians to Seth Rich, this would undermine reports of collusion between Russia and the Trump Administration.

Butowsky and Wheeler had the support of the Trump administration, according to the suit, which says the pair visited the White House in April, and shared Wheeler’s investigative notes with then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer. “Mr. Spicer asked to be kept abreast of developments and, upon information and belief, Butowsky did keep Mr. Spicer abreast of developments,” the suit reads.

Spicer confirmed the meeting occurred to NPR but said he is “unaware” of any contact with the president.

The day before the Fox story went live, in the midst of the chaos over Trump’s termination of FBI Director James Comey, Butowsky apparently told Wheeler they had an FBI source confirming an email exchange between Rich and Wikileaks.

“At no point in time did Mr. Wheeler say that his investigation revealed that Seth
Rich sent any emails to WikiLeaks, nor did he say that the DNC, Democratic Party or Clintons were engaged in a cover-up,” the suit says, noting that while Fox retracted its story, it never cleared Wheeler’s name or admitted the quotes were fabricated.

Wheeler is suing for defamation and for discrimination, because he claims Fox refused to hire him full-time and paid him less “because of his race, color, ethnicity and/or national origin.” His lawfirm, Wigdor LLP, has filed suit against Fox numerous times.

The Rich family says they are “hopeful that this brings an end to what has been the most emotionally difficult time in our lives and an end to conspiracy theories surrounding out beloved Seth,” in a statement from spokesperson Brad Bauman.

Fox calls the claims “completely erroneous.” Jay Wallace, the president of news at Fox News, said in a statement that the “retraction of this story is still being investigated internally and we have no evidence that Rod Wheeler was misquoted by Zimmerman. Additionally, FOX News vehemently denies the race discrimination claims in the lawsuit — the dispute between Zimmerman and Rod Wheeler has nothing to do with race.”

Butowsky first got in touch with Wheeler in February with a business proposition: looking into the Rich murder, which had become an obsession in some conspiracy-laden corners of the internet.

After the Rich family was burned by a D.C. media gadfly named Jack Burkman, who initially pledged to increase the reward money for the family but ultimately started spewing his own conspiracies, Butowsky offered to help the suffering family find closure. According to the suit, he instructed Wheeler not to tell the family about their connections to Fox.

“As it turned out, Butowsky and Zimmerman were not simply Good Samaritans
attempting to solve a murder,” the lawsuit says. “Rather, they were interested in advancing a political agenda for the Trump Administration.”

Butowsky name-dropped President Trump in pushing Wheeler to greenlight the story, per the lawsuit. “Not to add any more pressure but the president just read the article,” Butowsky allegedly texted. “He wants the article out immediately. It’s now all up to you. But don’t feel the pressure.”

Butowsky more recently told NPR that he was joking about Trump’s involvement (and has since deleted his Twitter account).

Once the story broke, the Rich family demanded an immediate retraction and sent Wheeler a cease and desist letter.

The national Fox story was preempted by one from the local Fox 5 affiliate in D.C., which was published on May 15. Unlike the retracted national article, the local story is still online.

The Metropolitan Police Department maintains that Rich was likely murdered in a botched robbery. After he was shot, officers found him with his watch, wallet, and credit cards, and he died at a nearby hospital.

But that answer isn’t satisfying to people like Burkman, who has since set up a “war room” in Arlington to investigate the murder. Today, he is staging a “Hollywood-style” reenactment of the murder that “will be open to the media.”

On the one-year anniversary of Rich’s murder, his family released a statement condemning the politicization of their tragedy.

We are compelled to address those who are claiming to help by undertaking private “investigations”, staging reenactments, or traveling to Seth’s old neighborhood to perform citizen interviews. Our request is that anyone with information about Seth’s murder share such information with MPD, which is the law enforcement agency authorized by law to perform this investigation. And while we recognize the futility of this request, we make it anyway: please cease using Seth as a political football in predetermined partisan narratives.

The continual push of false and inaccurate information about Seth’s death, along with the harassment of Seth’s friends, family and co-workers, hurts those who were closest to Seth, and does nothing to bring justice to his killers.

Wheeler Complaint by Rachel Kurzius on Scribd

Previously:
On Anniversary, Seth Rich’s Family Says To Stop Using His Murder As ‘A Political Football’
Why The Hell Is Fox 5’s Bogus Seth Rich Story Still Online?
Fox News Finally Retracts Its Discredited Story About Seth Rich’s Death
Seth Rich’s Family Demands Immediate Retraction Of Debunked Fox 5 Story
Fox 5 Continues Peddling Shameful Hearsay On Murder Of DNC Staffer
GOP Lobbyist Now Opening ‘War Room’ Dedicated To Solving Seth Rich Murder
‘It’s Hurtful’: Seth Rich’s Family Responds To Latest Conspiracy Theory About His Murder
‘We Need Your Help’: Family Of Murdered DNC Staffer Pleas At Crime Scene
Seth Rich’s Family Demands Immediate Retraction Of Debunked Fox 5 Story