Six weeks after Fox News analyst Rod Wheeler sued the channel, as well as reporter Malia Zimmerman and others, for defamation, the network is firing back seeking to dismiss the suit.
Wheeler, a private investigator and Fox crime analyst, is also suing Ed Butowsky, who was bankrolling an investigation into the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich.
Fox News reporter Malia Zimmerman wrote a now-retracted story about Rich’s murder. Wheeler claims he was misquoted in that story, and made several other claims, including:
Butowsky and Zimmerman hoped that, if they could shift the blame for the DNC hacks from the Russians to Seth Rich, this would undermine reports of collusion between Russia and the Trump Administration.
“Plaintiff’s Complaint is overloaded with sensationalistic allegations that have nothing whatsoever to do with this cause of action,” Fox says in their statement. “The irrelevant allegations about an attempted cover-up relating to Russian involvement in the Democratic National Committee (“DNC”) email hacking scandal, the firing of FBI director James Comey, and Rupert Murdoch’s bid for European media conglomerate Sky plc, should be ignored.”
Wheeler’s attorney is Douglas Wigdor who is also representing several current and former Fox employees and contributors in their lawsuits against the company, including anchor Kelly Wright who sued claiming racial discrimination, and Scottie Nell Hughes a former political contributor who, just yesterday, sued, claiming FBN anchor Charles Payne sexually assaulted and raped her.