President Donald Trump personally approved a false Fox News story claiming a murdered Democratic staffernot Russian hackersleaked DNC emails to WikiLeaks, a new lawsuit claims.
Private investigator Rod Wheeler sued the network in federal court on Tuesday, alleging it falsely quoted him in an article saying slain DNC staffer Seth Rich had contact with WikiLeaks. Wheeler accuses Fox News regular and pro-Trump money manager Ed Butowsky of coordinating between the network 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 didnt meet their standards.
The White Houses and Foxs motivation to push the false story was to lift the cloud of 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 trump with the Russians, Butowsky allegedly wrote in emails to Fox News producers and anchors promoting the piece.
Wheelers 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. Its now all up to you. But don't feel the pressure.
A couple minutes ago I got a note that we have the full, uh, attention of the White House, on this, Butowsky allegedly said in a voicemail that same day, according to the lawsuit. And, tomorrow, lets close this deal, whatever weve got to do. But you can feel free to say that the White House is onto this now.
