See you in court
Seth Rich's family suing Fox News over retracted story
The family of Seth Rich, a Democratic National Committee staffer who was killed in 2016, has filed a lawsuit against Fox News, investigative reporter Malia Zimmerman, and commentator Ed Butowsky over a story Rich's family says contained "false and fabricated facts."
Rich was killed in Washington, D.C., in July 2016, and police told the Rich family it's possible robbery was a factor; his murder remains unsolved. At the time, the 27-year-old was a voter-expansion data director with the DNC. In a lawsuit obtained by ABC News, Rich's family says a Fox News article posted on May 16, 2017, contained incorrect information that sparked conspiracy theories falsely linking Rich's murder to WikiLeaks' release of 20,000 hacked DNC emails. Fox News retracted the story later that month.
The suit claims that Zimmerman and Butowsky contacted Rich's parents, Joel and Mary Rich, under false pretenses and they "aided and abetted the intentional infliction of emotional distress" caused by the "sham story." In a statement, Joel and Mary Rich said that "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." Butowsky told ABC News the lawsuit is "one of the dumbest" he's ever seen.