Reporter Claims Russian State-Owned Network Pressured Him To Resurface Seth Rich Conspiracy In White House
Update, August 2: Yahoo News reports that Andrew Feinberg, a previous employee of Russian state-owned site Sputnik, claims that he was fired after he refused to ask Sean Spicer about Seth Rich after Fox News' Seth Rich story was retracted. The claims suggest that Russia may have been interested in advancing anti-Clinton conspiracy theories even after the election.
Update, August 1: A new lawsuit claims that a Trump supporter worked with Fox News to concoct the false Seth Rich story.
The explosive claim is part of the lawsuit filed against Fox News by Rod Wheeler, a longtime paid commentator for the news network. The suit was obtained exclusively by NPR.
Wheeler alleges Fox News and the Trump supporter intended to deflect public attention from growing concern about the administration's ties to the Russian government. His suit charges that a Fox News reporter created quotations out of thin air and attributed them to him to propel her story.
[NPR]
The lawsuit also claims that Wheeler and the Trump supporter met with Sean Spicer about the investigation, and texts from the supporter claim that President Trump himself reviewed a draft of the Fox News story.
Update, May 23: A week after Fox's original story about the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich ran — and after the channel's top personality Sean Hannity spent the week focusing on the case — Fox News announced it was retracting the story:
On May 16, a story was posted on the Fox News website on the investigation into the 2016 murder of DNC Staffer Seth Rich. The article was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting. Upon appropriate review, the article was found not to meet those standards and has since been removed.
[Fox News]
Here's what's going on.
The Original Theory Claimed That Seth Rich Was Murdered Because He Was A Mole Or Informant
Rich was killed during the election, and many online conspiracy theorists believe it was because he leaked emails to WikiLeaks, or because he could be an FBI informant against Hillary Clinton:
Rich, a 27-year-old DNC staffer, was shot twice in the back … amid the run-up to the presidential election. Although none of his possessions were taken from him, Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police consider it a botched robbery attempt, because there had been a spate of muggings in Rich's Bloomingdale neighborhood at the time. Almost two weeks later, on 22 July 2016, WikiLeaks dumped a load of hacked e-mails that would embarrass the DNC and create a media frenzy in the months before the election. The timing of the incidents, as well as Rich's employment at the DNC, led to conspiracy theories tying his death to the leak.
[Snopes]
On Monday, Fox 5 Published An Interview With Someone Claiming To Have Evidence Connecting Rich To WikiLeaks
Monday evening, local DC station Fox 5 published an interview with private investigator Rod Wheeler. In it, he claimed to have been hired by the Rich family, and have evidence tying Rich to WikiLeaks:
Rod Wheeler, a private investigator hired by the Rich family, suggests there is tangible evidence on Rich's laptop that confirms he was communicating with WikiLeaks prior to his death.
[Fox 5]
Fox News Says It Spoke To A Federal Investigator That Corroborated Wheeler's Claims
Wheeler and the federal investigator insist that there is evidence to back their claims… An FBI forensic report of Rich's computer — generated within 96 hours after Rich's murder — showed he made contact with WikiLeaks through Gavin MacFadyen, a now-deceased American investigative reporter, documentary filmmaker, and director of WikiLeaks who was living in London at the time, the federal source told Fox News…"I have seen and read the emails between Seth Rich and WikiLeaks," the federal investigator told Fox News, confirming the MacFadyen connection.
[Fox News]
But The Rich Family Rejected The Reports, Saying Wheeler Was Hired By A Fox News Contributor
The family of the slain staffer issued a statement rejecting the reports on Tuesday, saying the private investigator was hired by a third party, and contractually obligated to keep details of the investigation private:
Rich's parents, Joel and Mary Ann Rich, said Tuesday through a spokesman that they do not think their son gave any information to WikiLeaks….The Rich family's spokesman, Brad Bauman, said that Wheeler had not been hired by the family but by a "third-party" he identified as Ed Butowsky, a Dallas financier who regularly appears on Fox's business channels and on other networks. Bauman said that Wheeler offered his services to the family, "claiming he wanted to help." Butowsky said that he talked to Seth Rich's father and recommended Wheeler. He denied paying Wheeler or financing the investigation.
And On Tuesday, Wheeler Admitted To CNN He Didn't Actually Have Evidence — Other Than What He'd Heard From A Fox Reporter
But Tuesday afternoon, Wheeler told CNN he had no evidence to suggest Rich had contacted Wikileaks before his death. Wheeler instead said he only learned about the possible existence of such evidence through the reporter he spoke to for the FoxNews.com story. He explained that the comments he made to WTTG-TV were intended to simply preview Fox News' Tuesday story. The WTTG-TV news director did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
[CNN]
Furthermore, Rich's Laptop Was Never Given To The FBI
NBC reports that it has three sources that say that Rich's laptop was never given to the FBI to investigate:
Meanwhile, a current FBI official and a former one completely discount the Fox News claim that an FBI analysis of a computer belonging to Rich contained thousands of e-mails to and from WikiLeaks. Local police in Washington, D.C., never even gave the FBI Rich's laptop to analyze after his murder, according to the current FBI official. And a former law enforcement official with first-hand knowledge of Rich's laptop said the claim was incorrect. "It never contained any e-mails related to WikiLeaks, and the FBI never had it," the person said.
[NBC]
It's Not The First Time Wheeler Has Made Outlandish Claims
NBC notes that Wheeler has made outlandish public comments before on Fox. The Southern Poverty Law Center wrote in 2007, that Wheeler claimed "a national underground network" of lesbians with pink pistols was attacking and raping girls and heterosexual males. Reports never surfaced of the crimes he mentioned actually being committed.
