Fox contributor Rod Wheeler says the network fabricated his quotes, and the story, at the behest of the White House.
President Donald Trump personally approved a false Fox News story claiming a murdered Democratic staffer—not Russian hackers—leaked Democratic National Committee emails to WikiLeaks, a new lawsuit claims.
Private investigator Rod Wheeler sued the cable-TV network in federal court on Tuesday, alleging it falsely quoted him in an article saying slain DNC staffer Seth Rich had contact with Julian Assange’s rogue publishing operation. Wheeler accuses Fox News regular and pro-Trump money manager Ed Butowsky of coordinating between the channel and the White House in an effort to frame Rich for the leaks and imply Democrats had a hand in his death. Fox News later retracted the article, saying it didn’t meet its “standards.”
The White House and Fox’s motivation to push the false story was to “lift the cloud” of the Russia investigation, Wheeler claims in the lawsuit. (Trump fired FBI Director James Comey a week before the article was published.) “One of the big conclusions we need to draw from this is that the Russians did not hack our computer systems and ste[a]l emails and there was no collusion like [T]rump with the Russians,” Butowsky allegedly wrote in emails to Fox News producers and anchors promoting the piece.
Wheeler’s lawsuit includes screenshots of text messages with Butowsky, including an exchange two days before the article was published in which Butowsky wrote: “president [Trump] just read the article. He wants the article out immediately. It’s now all up to you. But don’t feel the pressure.”
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DOJ spox Flores on her cameo in the Rich suit: “I have not communicated with Mr. Butowsky at any point this year.” https://t.co/ND1eSy8N4E pic.twitter.com/TKmcj8xmwL
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) August 1, 2017
Butowsky's explicit effort to use Rich's murder to undercut not just Trump collusion allegations but IC findings of Russia hacking generally pic.twitter.com/TEWFifga4j
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) August 1, 2017
It wasn't just Butowsky who wanted this false story pushed. Sputnik wanted me to ask the WH about it and fired me when I refused. https://t.co/kADc0hasB4
— Andrew Feinberg (@agfhome) August 1, 2017
Active Measurehttps://t.co/IcFI3c0MY3
— John Schindler (@20committee) August 1, 2017
This is quite seriously the biggest story of the day. https://t.co/bBNQknvRPb
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) August 1, 2017
Week.
At least.
Proof of WH collusion w Fox, amp'd by Kremlin fronts, to disseminate lies.https://t.co/umqeaauwoN
— John Schindler (@20committee) August 1, 2017
Ed Butowsky appears to have deleted his twitter account this morning, which probably won't please a judge pic.twitter.com/MKr871uJDQ
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) August 1, 2017
The ex-WH correspondent for Sputinik tells @hunterw he was fired after he refused to push the phony Seth Rich story https://t.co/9XIAViaeHH
— Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff) August 3, 2017
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