The family of a former Democratic National Committee staffer whose killing sparked widespread conspiracy theories surrounding the 2016 election came to a settlement in their lawsuit against Fox News.
The agreement, which was announced on Tuesday, comes more than two years after Rich’s parents, Joel and Mary, filed a lawsuit against the cable news outlet in the Southern District of New York, alleging that there was intentional emotional distress inflicted upon them.
“The settlement with Fox News closes another chapter in our efforts to mourn the murder of our beloved Seth, whom we miss every single day,” they said in a statement through their lawyers. “It allows us to move on from the litigation we initiated in response to Fox News’ May 2017 article and televised statements concerning Seth’s murder. We are pleased with the settlement of this matter and sincerely hope that the media will take genuine caution in the future.”
“We thank everyone who has counseled us and given us strength,” they added. “We now look forward to devoting as much time and energy as we can to family and to preserving Seth’s memory as a blessing.”
The specific terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
“We are pleased with the resolution of the claims and hope this enables Mr. and Mrs. Rich to find a small degree of peace and solace moving forward,” Fox News said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
Rich was killed at the age of 27 the morning of July 10, 2016, in what authorities say was a botched robbery. Conspiracy theorists began speculating that he was the source of the stolen DNC emails obtained and published by WikiLeaks.
Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who is now facing possible extradition to the United States for a host of charges, helped promote the conspiracy theory. The government concluded, however, that the DNC emails were stolen by Russian military intelligence, and there’s no credible evidence pointing to Rich’s involvement.
The lawsuit, which was filed in March 2018, claimed that former Fox News guest Edward Butowsky and Fox News reporter Malia Zimmerman “induced” Rich’s parents to hire investigator Rod Wheeler to help “solve” their son’s killing, and that the three colluded “to pursue and develop a fiction” that painted Rich as the leaker. Both Butowsky and Zimmerman were sued by the Rich family as a part of their suit against Fox News.
Fox News published an article in 2017 titled “Slain DNC Staffer Had Contact with WikiLeaks Say Multiple Sources,” which promoted baseless claims that Rich was involved in stealing the DNC emails, but the news outlet later retracted the story, saying it “was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting.”
A district court judge for the Southern District of New York dismissed the Rich family’s complaint in August 2018, but lawyers for the Rich family appealed the case to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and judges overturned the lower court’s decision in a 28-page ruling in September 2019.
