The family of slain Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich is suing Fox News and two of their employees over an article published about his death, which they said allegedly contained “false and fabricated facts.”
The lawsuit, first reported by ABC News, said the May 2017 Fox News article contained “false and fabricated facts” that sparked conspiracy theories tying Rich’s murder to the WikiLeaks dump of 20,000 emails from the DNC, which occurred just a few days after his death.
Rich’s parents, Joel and Mary Rich, claim that Fox News’ Malia Zimmerman and Ed Butowsky “aided and abetted the intentional infliction of emotional distress” by pushing a story to portray their son as a “criminal and traitor to the U.S.”
They claim in the lawsuit that the family was contacted by Zimmerman and Butowsky under false pretenses to promote the narrative that their son leaked the DNC emails to WikiLeaks.
Fox News retracted the story later that month, but the parents claim that the cable news channel provided a national platform for conspiracy theorists to run with this “sham story.”
“No parent should ever have to live through what we have been forced to endure. The pain and anguish that comes from seeing your murdered son’s life and legacy treated as a mere political football is beyond comprehension” Joel and Mary Rich said in a statement.
Butowsky brushed off the lawsuit as “one of the dumbest” he’d ever seen in an interview with ABC News, adding that Rich’s parents should just “come forward and be honest with people.”
“Nobody’s benefited from anything,” he added. “To file a lawsuit to say that anybody has benefited just smells weird.”
Rich was shot and killed while walking to his home in Washington in July 2016. He was 27 years old and worked at the DNC as a voter-expansion data director.
His family previously asked conspiracy theorists and commentators to stop using his death as a “political football in predetermined partisan narrative” on the one-year anniversary of his death.
