A federal judge in Manhattan dismissed a lawsuit Thursday that was brought against Fox News by the parents of Seth Rich, the young Democratic aide whose unsolved murder was turned into fodder for a lingering right-wing conspiracy theory.
In his dismissal of the lawsuit, Judge George B. Daniels said he sympathized with Mr. Rich’s parents, but added that they had not been personally defamed by the story — despite the fact that it included “false statements or misrepresentations.”
Mr. Rich’s parents, Joel and Mary, filed the suit in Federal District Court in Manhattan in March, arguing that Fox News had caused them emotional distress and engaged in “extreme and outrageous conduct” by publishing a fabricated article claiming that their son had leaked thousands of internal emails from the Democratic National Committee to WikiLeaks. Those emails were then released them to the public in an act that proved damaging to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
The story, published on the Fox News website on May 16, 2017, implied that Mr. Rich’s death on the streets on Washington in July 2016 had occurred in retaliation for the leaks, even though no evidence supported that conclusion. Mr. Rich’s parents held that Mr. Rich — then 27 — had been killed during an attempted robbery.
Within a week, Fox News retracted the story, saying that it had not met its standards, but the conspiracy theory has persisted, fueled by prominent conservatives like Newt Gingrich, the Fox News pundit Sean Hannity and the right-wing broadcasters Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones of Infowars. The rumors about Mr. Rich’s death were embraced by some supporters of President Trump, who used them to undercut the notion that Russian operatives had been responsible for the leak.
“It is understandable that plaintiffs might feel that their grief and personal loss were taken advantage of, and that the tragic death of their son was exploited for political purposes,” Judge Daniels wrote. But he added that he had no choice but to dismiss the suit, because Fox’s conduct did not amount to the intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The judge also noted that Mr. Rich could not have been defamed by the story under New York law, because he was dead.
Malia Zimmerman, a Fox News reporter who was the author of the retracted article, and Ed Butowsky, a regular guest on the network who assisted Ms. Zimmerman, were also named in the lawsuit. Judge Daniels dismissed the accusations against them, as well, saying that even though the story they had put together was untrue, their behavior did not meet the legal standard of “extreme and outrageous conduct.”
Suyash Agrawal, a lawyer for Mr. Rich’s parents, said they were disappointed in the decision. “But they look forward to vindicating their rights on appeal,” he said.
In a related decision, Judge Daniels also dismissed a separate lawsuit brought against Fox News, Ms. Zimmerman and Mr. Butowsky by a private detective who had played a central role in the retracted story.
The detective, Rod Wheeler, was hired by the Rich family on Mr. Butowsky’s recommendation to help them investigate their son’s death. Mr. Wheeler — who was himself a Fox News contributor — was quoted in the story as saying there was “information” linking Mr. Rich to WikiLeaks. But he later accused Fox News and Ms. Zimmerman of misrepresenting what he had said, calling that action part of a coordinated effort with the White House to smear Mr. Rich and “shift the blame from Russia.”
Mr. Wheeler also claimed that Mr. Butowsky, a wealthy Trump supporter, had defamed him after the story was retracted by posting comments on Twitter including “Rod Wheeler has a major battle with the truth.”
In dismissing his suit, Judge Daniels ruled that Mr. Wheeler had not proved that he had been misquoted and added that Mr. Wheeler had also given his tacit consent to the article’s publication. The judge also characterized Mr. Butowsky’s social media attacks as largely rhetorical.
Mr. Wheeler and his partners at Fox News had “embarked on a collective effort to support a sensational claim regarding Seth Rich’s murder,” Judge Daniels wrote. Mr. Wheeler, the judge concluded, “cannot now seek to avoid the consequences of his own complicity and coordinated assistance in perpetuating a politically motivated story not having any basis in fact.”
Lawyers for both Mr. Butowsky and Ms. Zimmerman said they were pleased by the decisions. Fox News declined to comment.
