The term “fake news” has gone from being a political tool to just another piece of pop culture.

This time, however, the term is linked to a legit lawsuit.

According to the Associated Press, private investigator Rod Wheeler has filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox, claiming that the news channel synthesized quotes in order to implicate murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich in the Clinton WikiLeaks scandal.

Rich was murdered on July 10, 2016, just a few months after then presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's private emails were released via WikiLeaks.

In the Fox News story published on May 16, 2017, Wheeler says that he was quoted as saying that Democrats or Clinton campaign officials were willfully impeding Rich’s murder investigation. He says he was also quoted as stating that Rich colluded with WikiLeaks to release Clinton's emails.

The piece that Wheeler has a grievance with no longer exists. A week after it was published, Fox News deleted the piece from its website, stating that the story “was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all of our reporting."

Wheeler became involved with the Rich case in his capacity as a private eye. A former Washington, D.C. police detective, Wheeler was hired by Rich's family to look into his death. The detective has appeared on Fox News before as a contributor, and, according to his lawsuit, was brought into this story by a fellow Fox News talent, Trump supporter Ed Butowsky.

Butowsky was allegedly keen to link Rich and the WikiLeaks scandal.

And Wheeler claims that Butowsky wasn't the only one.

According to the lawsuit, the Trump administration wanted this story to go out in order to distract from the on-going Russia investigation.

Wheeler says that this went all the way to the top, with unpublished drafts of the article being shared with Donald Trump himself, who according to the suit, wanted it published ASAP.

Wheeler further alleges that he — along with Butowsky — met with former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who asked to be kept in the loop of the investigation.

Fox News calls the idea that it collaborated with the administration to publish a story to distract from the Russia investigation “completely erroneous.”

Fox News' news president, Jay Wallace, told the AP that the network currently has no evidence that Wheeler was misquoted, but added that the story is still under investigation. The White House and Butowsky did not comment on Wheeler's allegations.

Oh, and that's not all.

The lawsuit plot thickens. Wheeler, a black man, who is also suing Fox News for racial discrimination during his tenure as a Fox contributor. He says he was paid less than white contributors of similar credentials.

This certainly adds fuel to the fire; we’ve recently reported on a few similar
cases already in connection with the news network.

Rod Wheeler

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