Lawsuit: White House reviewed retracted Fox News story before airing; source's quotes were made up
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A retired homicide detective has filed a lawsuit claiming he was misquoted in a discredited Fox News story that was allegedly concocted with the help of a wealthy supporter of President Donald Trump to discredit intelligence reports that Russians had hacked Democratic National Committee emails.
The former detective, Rod Wheeler, is a paid Fox News commentator. His “explosive” suit focuses attention on Dallas investor Ed Butowsky, who allegedly boasted in a text that Trump had reviewed a draft of the Fox News story before it aired, NPR reports. The suit also claims then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer was informed about the story.
Butowsky had hired Wheeler to investigate the shooting death of Democratic Party staffer Seth Rich, and the Fox News story claiming Rich had links to WikiLeaks relied on Wheeler and an unnamed FBI official.
Wheeler’s suit says Fox News made up quotes and attributed them to him, which amounted to defamation. The Washington Post and CNN also covered the suit here.
“Not to add any more pressure,” Butowsky allegedly wrote in a text to Wheeler, “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.” The suit also quotes from an alleged voicemail from Butowsky to Wheeler saying, “A couple minutes ago I got a note that we have the full attention of the White House, on this.”
Butowsky told CNN that his references to Trump were a joke referring to Wheeler’s hopes for a job in the administration. Butowsky said “the lawsuit is bullshit” and Wheeler’s lawyer “pulled this out of his butt to make money.”
Spicer tells NPR he agreed to the meeting as a favor to Butowsky and he was informed about the story during the meeting. He said he is not aware of any contact with the president.
The Fox News story, which investigated the July 2016 shooting death of Rich, said evidence from his laptop showed he had been in contact with WikiLeaks before it posted hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee.
The report quotes Wheeler as saying his investigation found some degree of exchange between Rich and WikiLeaks, and that his investigation showed someone was blocking the murder investigation, and it could be someone from D.C. government, the DNC or the Clinton campaign. Wheeler claims both quotes were fabricated and untrue.
Fox retracted the story a week after it aired, saying the article was not subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny it requires for reporting and did not live up to its standards.
Fox News president Jay Wallace told NPR there was no “concrete evidence” that Wheeler was misquoted.
The Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department determined that Rich was the victim of a botched armed robbery. An FBI spokeswoman told NPR it played no part in the Rich murder investigation.
Wheeler was fired from the police department in Washington, D.C., in 1995. The lawyer who filed the suit, Douglas Wigdor, said Wheeler was fired for insubordination because his urine test showed trace amounts of marijuana.
