"The lawsuit said that Malia Zimmerman, the Fox News reporter named in the lawsuit, worked with Ed Butowsky, the wealthy businessman, to develop a "sham" story about Rich's death that Fox News published online in May 2017 and referenced on-air multiple times.ABC News first reported on the Rich family's lawsuit.
Zimmerman's story said Rod Wheeler, a private investigator and Fox News contributor hired by Butowsky to look into Rich's death, had learned that Wikileaks had been in contact with Rich prior to his death. The story suggested without real evidence that Rich had leaked a trove of DNC emails to Wikileaks and further suggested that his death, which police suspect was a botched robbery, was retribution for the supposed leak.
Within hours, however, the Fox News story fell apart when Wheeler, who is now suing Fox News over the story, told CNN he had no evidence to suggest Rich had contacted Wikileaks before his death.
But Fox News left the story up on its website for days and guests continued to mention the conspiracy theory on its air. The network ultimately retracted the story seven days after it was published.
The Rich family lawsuit said the actions taken by the defendants "were so outrageous in character and so extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency and are atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community."
Since Fox News published its baseless story, the Rich family has been open about the pain it has inflicted upon them. Aaron Rich, the brother of Seth Rich, sent a letter to Hannity days after Fox News published its story, telling him that continuing to cover the story would "cause us additional pain, suffering and sorrow." Joel Rich later told NPR that the publication of Fox News' story was "almost as bad for us as when we first learned of Seth's death."
Family of slain Democratic staffer Seth Rich sues Fox News
From my friend Peter, from another thread, who breaks it down:
"So a Republican Sugar Daddy, in conjunction with Fox reporter Malia Zimmerman, hires a PI to say that Rich had leaked a bunch of DNC emails and that Democrats had Seth Rich murdered as retribution. The story falls apart within hours as Rod Wheeler, the PI is like whoa, I never said anything like that all, and Rod Wheeler is suing Fox as well. Fox leaves the story up for a WEEK before retracting it and of course it now lives on as Conservative Zombie News that you just can't kill.
Bad look all around for anybody involved in repeating this almost immediately discredited conspiracy theory. I am sorry for the Rich family being victims of Republican agitprop and I hope they exact their revenge and make an example of this type of scurrilous, political and profit driven fabrication.
