Rod Wheeler and attorney Douglas Wigdor discussed the bombshell lawsuit accusing Fox News of colluding with the Trump administration to create fake news about the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich in order to relieve some of the pressure on Donald Trump about Russia. Wigdor also explained why this is more grounds for U.K. regulators to decide against permitting Fox’s parent company, 21st Century Fox, to purchase the Sky broadcasting giant.
Wheeler told MSNBC host Ari Melber that he felt “lured” into the Rich murder investigation. “They told me that I was really getting involved just to solve a murder,” Wheeler said about Ed Butowsky, the wealthy GOP financier with ties to Donald Trump. Wheeler alleges that he had actually been used as a pawn in a scheme between Butowsky, Fox and the Trump administration to find that Rich, not Russia, had hacked the DNC last year during the presidential campaign, and that his murder was somehow related to that.
Personally, I find it hard to believe Wheeler had no inkling that there was any ulterior motive behind his hire. Wheeler is a long-time Fox News contributor who has also long been a willing partner in the network’s messaging. This MSNBC interview includes a clip from Wheeler’s appearance on the Hannity show where he seems to have shown that same willingness.
That does not mean that Wheeler has been willing to lie for Fox. So I have no reason to doubt his claim that Fox fabricated quotes from him in order to beef up [in service to Trump] a now-retracted report that implicated Rich in the hacking and the Democrats in the murder.
As Wigdor explained, the facts will come out in this case. But Fox is already looking like it has something to hide:
WIGDOR: They say that our claims are erroneous but then they go on to say that they’re still investigating it. So how could they already conclude that they’re erroneous if they’re still going through an investigation?
Regardless of what Fox says now or how it quoted Wheeler before retracting its report, without exonerating him, it seems pretty clear the network has been involved in a shady effort to exploit Rich’s murder on Trump’s behalf. Putting Wheeler aside, Sean Hannity has repeatedly promoted the unfounded conspiracy theory, even after Rich’s family asked him to stop. And Hannity is close with the Trump administration.
Now, Fox's efforts on Trump’s behalf could wind up ruining the parent company’s efforts to take over Sky:
WIGDOR: You know, we’re going to take discovery in this case. We’re going to see the emails, their texts, the phone calls, their visits to the White House between Ed Butowsky and President Trump and other people in the White House. And we’re going to get even more information in this case. And what’s really amazing – last point – is that the general counsel of 21st Century Fox, Gerson Zweifach, was in England, trying to convince the regulators in England that they should be able to purchase Sky and that they’ve met the broadcasting standards by implementing new policies the day before this [now-retracted] article came out.
Watch it below, from MSNBC’s The Beat with Ari Melber on August 1, 2017.
Detective Says Fox News Lured Him Into Plot to Help Trump White House
Rod Wheeler joins Ari Melber to discuss his lawsuit alleging Fox News defamed him in the Seth Rich story.