[Hong Wu]

http://dailycaller.com/2017/07/25/wasse ... e-country/ -- Debbie Wasserman Schultz's Tech Worker Arrested at the Airport Trying to Flee the Country.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/201 ... eport.html -- FBI examining smashed hard drives.

Suspected to be related to IT breaches into the American intelligence system. Awan brothers have collected at least $4million from the DNC and related groups.



For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, '/pol/ was right again.'

[Saeko]

Our government is in shambles.

[One Degree]

At least the criminals can relax. All the FBI agents are busy investigating our officials and their staffs.
Drama for the masses. When I see them dragging an official to jail, I might drop some of my cynicism. I will not hold my breath.

[Hong Wu]

I think there's a happening level of it's, here. Remember this guy?


A prosecutor handling fraud cases who turned up dead in DWS' district. Quite the coincidence.

http://dailycaller.com/2017/05/24/wasse ... ed-crimes/ -- DWS threatened police chief for gathering evidence over her IT staffer's alleged crimes. Not an anonymous source, it's on video.

[The Immortal Goon]

As is typical, this seems to be extremely trumped up to make a parliamentary political point. It seems that this was a sleazy hire by the DNC which then did sleazy things and fell into investigation and the arrest was made.

This seems more or less open-and-shut to me. Not really a pizza-gate style conspiracy theory. Though you never know, it's not like the Democrats are any cleaner than the Republicans.

The most legit source I could find on it:

Imran Awan, a House staffer at the center of a criminal investigation potentially impacting dozens of Democratic lawmakers, has been arrested on bank fraud and is prevented from leaving the country while the charges are pending.

A senior House Democratic aide confirmed Awan was still employed by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) as of Tuesday morning. But David Damron, a spokesman for Wasserman Schultz, later said that Awan was fired on Tuesday.

Awan pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to one count of bank fraud during his arraignment in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Awan is accused of attempting to defraud the Congressional Federal Credit Union by obtaining a $165,000 home equity loan for a rental property, which is against the credit union’s policies since it is not the owner's primary residence. Those funds were then included as part of a wire transfer to two individuals in Faisalabad, Pakistan.

Awan was arrested at Dulles Airport on Monday evening before boarding a flight to Lahore, Pakistan. His wife, Hina Alvi, has already left the country for Pakistan along with their children. Federal agents do not believe Alvi has any intention of returning to the U.S., according to a court document.

Awan was released Tuesday on a “high-intensity supervision program,” according to a DOJ spokesman. He must wear a GPS monitor, abide by a curfew of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. and cannot leave a 50-mile radius of his Lorton, Va., home. He was also forced to surrender his passports and is scheduled to reappear in court for a preliminary hearing Aug. 21.

"This is clearly a right-wing media-driven prosecution by a United States Attorney's Office that wants to prosecute people for working while Muslim," Chris Gowen, Awan's attorney, said in an email declaring his client's innocence.

"A quick glance at what the government filed in court today confirms the lack of evidence or proof they have against my client."

Awan, a longtime IT staffer who worked for more than two dozen House Democrats, has been at the center of a criminal investigation on Capitol Hill for months related to procurement theft. Several of his family members, also IT staffers at the time, were implicated in the ongoing investigation.

Most Democratic lawmakers cut ties with Awan and his family after the criminal investigation came to light in early February. But Awan has continued to be employed by Wasserman Schultz, although it’s unclear what his job duties are given he has been barred from accessing the House IT system for months.

Alvi, another House staff member involved in the Capitol Hill investigation, left the country with their three daughters, headed for Pakistan in March, according to an affidavit filed in the Awan case. Alvi had “numerous pieces of luggage” and more than $12,000 in cash, FBI agent Brandon Merriman wrote in the affidavit.

The Daily Caller is owned and run by Tucker Carlson. Using it on a source for this is like looking to Tommy Vietor for hard-hitting news about the Obama presidency.

[SpecialOlympian]

I know what will make my claims look legitimate and not at all like pizzagate paranoid bullshit for retards!

*copy/pastes posts directly from /pol/*

[Hong Wu]

The Politico article doesn't mention that Debbie kept the Awans on as tech guys with access to house data after they were removed by changing their titles, nor does it explain why she would threaten the head of the capitol police on video over them having some of their "equipment" confiscatd. For example, do you think the Awan's ability to get $400 million (that we know about) was unrelated to the positions they were granted in government? Seems impossible that they would have time to pull of that kind of fraud on the side. Just how do people in government get so rich, anyway? There's got to be more than one method.

I have a feeling we'll be hearing about this one for awhile!

[Ter]

https://twitter.com/georgwebb

[Hong Wu]

Yeah, this is almost surely going to take awhile. Talk about a conflict of interest.

"Drain the swamp!"

[JohnRawls]

http://dailycaller.com/2017/07/25/wasserman-schultzs-it-aide-arrested-trying-to-flee-the-country/ -- Debbie Wasserman Schultz's Tech Worker Arrested at the Airport Trying to Flee the Country.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/201 ... eport.html -- FBI examining smashed hard drives.

Suspected to be related to IT breaches into the American intelligence system. Awan brothers have collected at least $4million from the DNC and related groups.



For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, '/pol/ was right again.'

This is uterly stupid. If they tipped them off about the yemen raid, then how was the raid sucessful in the first place ? Several hours is more than enough to destroy and evacuate what you need. Also if they were tipped off, surely they would prepare a full ambush and not 1 but more navy seals would have died ? This utterly makes no sense.

[SpecialOlympian]

*Eric Trump releases emails saying "I would love to collude with Russia!"*

Pfft, conspiracy nonsense.

*Someone tangentially related to DEBBIE. WASSERMAN. SCHULTZ. is under investigation for business fraud*

This is bigger than Pizzagate!

This is uterly stupid. If they tipped them off about the yemen raid, then how was the raid sucessful in the first place ? Several hours is more than enough to destroy and evacuate what you need. Also if they were tipped off, surely they would prepare a full ambush and not 1 but more navy seals would have died ? This utterly makes no sense.

Because Pizzagate is real, jet fuel can't melt steal beams, and Seth Rich died for our sins.

[JohnRawls]

*Eric Trump releases emails saying "I would love to collude with Russia!"*

Pfft, conspiracy nonsense.

*Someone tangentially related to DEBBIE. WASSERMAN. SCHULTZ. is under investigation for business fraud*

This is bigger than Pizzagate!



Because Pizzagate is real, jet fuel can't melt steal beams, and Seth Rich died for our sins.

In all honestly, you are on the same level as Pizzagate with all the Trump and Russiagate bullshit

[Hong Wu]

Some retired colonel on Fox saying things similar to what was posted on /pol/. If the Awans were really feeding information to the Muslim Brotherhood, it could have easily made its way through the pipeline to a group like the Taliban or maybe even ISIS.

[JohnRawls]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlqiLJVM-so&feature=youtu.be&t=2030

Some retired colonel on Fox saying things similar to what was posted on /pol/. If the Awans were really feeding information to the Muslim Brotherhood, it could have easily made its way through the pipeline to a group like the Taliban or maybe even ISIS.

Yes, yes. Let us not make a distinction between AQ, Taliban and ISIS who are all enemies by the way. AQ is Saudi/Pakistan funded, ISIS is qatars pet project along with muslim brotherhood and Taliban are Afganistans local warlords/tribesman.

I am pretty sure they have a robust inteligence sharing methods while they are fighting each other.

[Hong Wu]

Yes, yes. Let us not make a distinction between AQ, Taliban and ISIS who are all enemies by the way. AQ is Saudi/Pakistan funded, ISIS is qatars pet project along with muslim brotherhood and Taliban are Afganistans local warlords/tribesman.

I am pretty sure they have a robust inteligence sharing methods while they are fighting each other.

They're all radical Muslim groups that want to kill Americans, I don't see how many distinctions the average American should be making there.

It's well known among people who pay attention to this sort of thing that the Pakistan government is contains sympathizers of radical Muslim groups, including the Taliban which arguably controls some rural territories within Pakistan, so yes it's possible that they could share some intelligence with each other.

Ultimately the point is not whether the specific theory from some guy on /pol/ is correct, the point is whether you can legitimately make US$400 million while doing IT work for the Democrats. The guy wearing a GPS tag who tried to flee the country will have to answer that.

[The Immortal Goon]

Turns out that this was all bullshit:

The Fox News Channel and a wealthy supporter of President Trump worked in concert under the watchful eye of the White House to concoct a story about the death of a young Democratic National Committee aide, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

The explosive claim is part of a lawsuit filed against Fox News by Rod Wheeler, a longtime paid commentator for the news network. The suit was obtained exclusively by NPR.

Wheeler alleges Fox News and the Trump supporter intended to deflect public attention from growing concern about the administration's ties to the Russian government. His suit charges that a Fox News reporter created quotations out of thin air and attributed them to him to propel her story.

Fox's president of news, Jay Wallace, told NPR on Monday that there was no "concrete evidence" that Wheeler was misquoted by the reporter, Malia Zimmerman. The news executive did not address a question about the story's allegedly partisan origins. Fox News declined to allow Zimmerman to comment for this story.

The story, which first aired in May, was retracted by Fox News a week later. Fox News has, to date, taken no action in response to what it said was a failure to adhere to the network's standards.

The lawsuit focuses particular attention on the role of the Trump supporter, Ed Butowsky, in weaving the story. He is a wealthy Dallas investor and unpaid Fox commentator on financial matters who has emerged as a reliable Republican surrogate in recent years. Butowsky offered to pay for Wheeler to investigate the death of the DNC aide, Seth Rich, on behalf of his grieving parents in Omaha, Neb.

On April 20, a month before the story ran, Butowsky and Wheeler — the investor and the investigator — met at the White House with then-press secretary Sean Spicer to brief him on what they were uncovering.

The first page of the lawsuit quotes a voicemail and text from Butowsky boasting that Trump himself had reviewed drafts of the Fox News story just before it went to air and was published.

Spicer now tells NPR that he took the meeting as a favor to Butowsky, a reliable Republican voice. Spicer says he was unaware of any contact involving the president. And Butowsky tells NPR that he was kidding about Trump's involvement.

"Rod Wheeler unfortunately was used as a pawn by Ed Butowsky, Fox News and the Trump administration to try and steer away the attention that was being given about the Russian hacking of the DNC emails," says Douglas Wigdor, Wheeler's lawyer.

The back story

On May 16, the Fox News Channel broke what it called a "bombshell" story about an unsolved homicide: the July 2016 shooting of 27-year-old Democratic Party staffer Seth Rich.

Unfounded conspiracy theories involving Rich abounded in the months after his death, in part because WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange cryptically suggested that Rich's death may have been related to the leaks of tens of thousands of emails from Democratic Party officials and their allies at the peak of the presidential campaign.

Fox News' story, which took flight online and ran in segments across major shows, breathed fresh life into the rumors. Fox reported that the leaks came from inside the party and not from hackers linked to Russia — despite the conclusions of the nation's most senior intelligence officials. The network suggested that Democrats might have been connected to Rich's death and that a cover-up had thwarted the official investigation.

The network cited an unnamed FBI official. And the report relied heavily on Wheeler, a former police detective, hired months earlier on behalf of the Riches by Butowsky.

These developments took place during growing public concern over a federal investigation into the Trump camp's possible collusion with the Russian government during the campaign. The allegations have since touched the president's son and son-in-law, his former campaign manager, his attorney general and his first national security adviser, who resigned as a result.

The question of Rich's death took on greater urgency for Butowsky after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in early May. Comey had been overseeing the Russia investigation. The story ran just a week later.

Fox's report went sideways shortly after it was posted online and aired on Fox & Friends. It was denounced by the Rich family, D.C. police, Democratic Party officials and even, privately, by some journalists within the network. Within hours, Wheeler told other news outlets that Fox News had put words in his mouth.

Despite those concerns, Wheeler appeared on the shows of Fox Business host Lou Dobbs and Fox News star Sean Hannity, who devoted significant time to the story that night and in subsequent days. In speaking with Wheeler, Hannity said: "If this is true and Seth Rich gave WikiLeaks the DNC e-mails ... this blows the whole Russia collusion narrative completely out of the water."

A week later, on May 23, Fox retracted the story, saying the reporting process failed to live up to its standards. Hannity said he would take a break from talking about Rich's death out of respect for the family. And there it has largely stood — until now.

The fake news story

In the lawsuit, the private investigator sets out a different version of events. Wheeler, a paid Fox News contributor since 2005, alleges the story was orchestrated behind the scenes and from the outset by Butowsky, who hired him on behalf of the Rich family.

The following account reflects the verbatim quotes provided from the texts, emails, voicemails and recorded conversations cited in Wheeler's lawsuit, except as otherwise noted.

According to the lawsuit, Trump's press secretary Sean Spicer meets at the White House with Wheeler and Butowsky to review the Rich story a month before Fox News ran the piece.

On May 14, about 36 hours before Fox News' story appears, Butowsky leaves a voicemail for Wheeler, saying, "We have the full, uh, attention of the White House on this. And tomorrow, let's close this deal, whatever we've got to do."

Butowsky also texts Wheeler: "Not to add any more pressure but the president just read the article. He wants the article out immediately. It's now all up to you."

Spicer now confirms meeting with the two but denies claims about the president.

"Ed's been a longtime supporter of the president and asked to meet to catch up," Spicer tells NPR on Monday night.

"I didn't know who Rod Wheeler was. Once we got into my office, [Butowsky] said, 'I'm sure you recognize Rod Wheeler from Fox News.' "

Spicer says Butowsky laid out what had been found about the case. "It had nothing to do with advancing the president's domestic agenda — and there was no agenda," Spicer says. "They were just informing me of the [Fox] story."

Spicer says he is not aware of any contact, direct or not, between Butowsky and Trump. And Butowsky now tells NPR he has never shared drafts of the story with Trump or his aides — that he was joking with a friend.

Instead, Butowsky repeatedly claims that the meeting was set up to address Wheeler's pleas for help landing a job for the Trump administration. Wheeler's attorney, Wigdor, says there is no evidence to support that claim.

In the suit, Wheeler alleges that Butowsky was using the White House references to pressure him.

Wheeler did play his own role in furthering the story. But he contends that he regretted it the same day it aired. His suit alleges Fox News defamed him by manufacturing two false quotations attributed to him and ruining his reputation by blaming him as the deceptive story fell apart. Wheeler, an African-American, is also suing the network for racial discrimination, saying he failed to advance as prominently as white counterparts. Fox News had no comment on that allegation.

Who is Ed Butowsky?

Butowsky is a silver-haired brash investor who became known for helping newly rich athletes figure out how to manage their money — and avoid getting fleeced. A native New Yorker and son of a former top enforcement officer for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Butowsky attended the University of Texas in the early 1980s. He set up his own company, Chapwood Capital Investment Management in Addison, Texas, outside Dallas, after a long stint at Morgan Stanley.

Federal records compiled by the election finance database OpenSecrets.org show Butowsky has given money to the campaigns of nine politicians: seven Republicans and two Democrats, including $1,000 to Barack Obama's campaign in January 2008.

In recent years, Butowsky has become outspoken about his political beliefs, becoming a familiar face on Fox News and its sister channel, the Fox Business Network. Butowsky has also appeared on Breitbart News' radio programs featuring then-Breitbart Chairman Steve Bannon, who became Trump's campaign chief and is now the president's senior political strategist.

Butowsky emerged as a vocal backer of Trump's candidacy. He attended Trump's inauguration, posting pictures from the day on social media. In the Seth Rich case, Butowsky presented himself as a good Samaritan who came across a sliver of information about Seth Rich's death and shared it with the Riches.

"I thought, 'You know what? I'm going to help these people out,' " Butowsky said on the radio show of David Webb, a conservative Fox News contributor. "Somehow, these people need to know what happened to their little boy." He gave a similar account in an interview Monday with NPR.

Wheeler's lawsuit alleges that Butowsky's generosity is clearly politically motivated.

On Feb. 23, more than six months after Rich's death, Butowsky introduces himself to Wheeler with a flattering text, citing mutual friends from Fox News. "Behind the scenes, I do a lot of work, (unpaid) helping to uncover certain stories," Butowsky writes, as recounted in the suit.

"[M]y biggest work was revealing most of what we know today about Benghazi," the deadly attack in Libya that sparked a congressional investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Later that day, Butowsky speaks to Wheeler for about 20 minutes by phone, saying his primary aim is to help the Rich family.

The man behind the lawsuit: Rod Wheeler

Wheeler, a 57-year-old former Washington, D.C., homicide detective, was part of the Metropolitan Police Department from 1990 to 1995, when he was dismissed, according to the agency. His New York City-based attorney, Wigdor, says Wheeler was fired for insubordination after his urine tested positive for trace amounts of marijuana.

When he meets with Butowsky, Wheeler has been a paid contributor to Fox News for more than 11 years and has been actively but unsuccessfully seeking greater exposure on the network, according to the suit.

Five days later, the two men meet in person at a lunch in Washington. Butowsky introduces an unexpected third guest: Malia Zimmerman, a Fox News investigative reporter based in Los Angeles known for enterprise reporting from a conservative standpoint.

According to the account in the suit, Butowsky cautions Wheeler before they set out to meet the Riches: "[M]ake sure to play down Fox News. Don't mention you know Malia."

And Butowsky lays out a different mission than aiding the Rich family. Butowsky says he became convinced that the FBI had a report concluding that Seth Rich's laptop showed he had had contacts with WikiLeaks after speaking to the legendary reporter Seymour Hersh, who was also investigating Rich's death. According to the transcripts in the lawsuit, Butowsky says Hersh had an FBI source who confirmed the report.

In an interview this week, Hersh sounds unconvinced.

"I hear gossip," Hersh tells NPR on Monday. "[Butowsky] took two and two and made 45 out of it."

Rich's parents initially welcome Wheeler's help and Butowsky's largesse. On March 14, Butowsky pays Wheeler $5,000, through a limited partnership company called Googie LP. (NPR found that Butowsky is listed in Texas public records as its general partner.)

Wheeler does not make great headway. The FBI informs Butowsky, Wheeler and Zimmerman that the agency is not assisting the Washington, D.C., police on the investigation — undercutting claims about an FBI report.

A Metro D.C. police detective tells Wheeler that Rich's death was likely a robbery gone awry and that the FBI is not involved.

Preparing to publish

On May 9, Trump fires Comey.

On May 10, Butowsky and Zimmerman call Wheeler to say they have an FBI source confirming emails were sent from Seth Rich to WikiLeaks, though they do not share the source's identity, according to the investigator's suit. Wheeler will later say this is the only federal law enforcement source that Fox News — or he — has related to this story.

Wheeler says he doesn't know whether that source emerged from Butowsky's conversation with Seymour Hersh or whether it was a fabrication.

The next day, Zimmerman sends Wheeler a draft of her story, which is to run initially on the network's website. It includes no quotes from Wheeler.

The night before the story ran and the day of the story itself, Butowsky coached Wheeler on what to say on the air."
On the evening of May 14, Butowsky leaves a voicemail for Wheeler raising the stakes by invoking the White House and saying, "Let's close this deal."

A bit later that night, at 9:10 p.m., Butowsky texts Wheeler, according to Wheeler's suit: "Not to add any more pressure but the president just read the article. He wants the article out immediately. It's now all up to you. But don't feel the pressure."

As the night before the story is aired progresses, Butowsky is awake, online and anticipating what is to unfold in a few short hours.

Butowsky sends an email to Fox News producers and hosts coaching them on how to frame the Rich story, according to the lawsuit. Recipients included Fox & Friends hosts, Steve Doocy, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade.

"I'm actually the one who's been putting this together but as you know, I keep my name out of things because I have no credibility," Butowsky writes, as reflected in the Wheeler suit. "One of the big conclusions we need to draw from this is that the Russians did not hack our computer systems and ste[a]l emails and there was no collusion" between "Trump and the Russians."

The night before the story ran and the day of the story itself, Butowsky coaches Wheeler on what to say on the air: "[T]he narrative in the interviews you might use is that you and [Fox News reporter Malia Zimmerman's] work prove that the Russians didn't hack into the DNC and steal the emails and impact our elections." In another text, he writes: "If you can, try to highlight this puts the Russian hacking story to rest."

Fox goes with the story

The story breaks earlier than expected.

On the evening of May 15, Fox News' sister local station in Washington, Fox 5 DC, runs a story online at once promoting and pre-empting the network's apparent scoop. "The police department nor the FBI have been forthcoming," Wheeler tells the station. "They haven't been cooperating at all. I believe that the answer to solving his death lies on that computer, which I believe is either at the police department or either at the FBI. I have been told both."

On Fox & Friends, the hosts call the story a 'bombshell.' "
Asked whether his sources have told him about information linking Rich to the WikiLeaks email dump, Wheeler says, "Absolutely. Yeah. That's confirmed."

The next morning, the story goes national.

Fox News reports that evidence from Rich's laptop showed he had been in contact with WikiLeaks just days before the site posted those emails. Fox also reports that powerful forces were trying to quash the official investigation into his death.

On Fox & Friends, the hosts call the story a "bombshell."

Zimmerman's online story cites an unnamed "federal investigator who reviewed an FBI report" for its findings. It also cites Wheeler, incorporating two key quotations from Wheeler that do not appear on video. In each, the private investigator seemingly takes ownership of the accusations.

The first: "My investigation up to this point shows there was some degree of email exchange between Seth Rich and WikiLeaks."

The second: "My investigation shows someone within the D.C. government, Democratic National Committee or Clinton team is blocking the murder investigation from going forward. That is unfortunate. Seth Rich's murder is unsolved as a result of that."

The Riches torch Wheeler, saying they have seen no proof for his contentions.

Wheeler alleges both quotations were fabricated and untrue.

According to the lawsuit, Zimmerman promises to have those lines removed — but they stay in the story. Zimmerman then tells him that her bosses at Fox News had instructed her to leave those quotes in.

That same day, the suit recounts, Zimmerman writes a letter to Seth Rich's father, Joel, distancing Fox News from responsibility for what the network reported: "Much of our information came from a private investigator, Rod Wheeler, who we understand was working on behalf of you."

Wheeler challenges Zimmerman over the letter in a three-way phone conversation that also included Butowsky. The Fox News reporter defends herself: "That's the email that Fox asked me to send him. They wrote it for me."

Wheeler replies: "That's not accurate, though, because much, much of the information did not come from me."

"Not about the emails. Not the part about, I mean, the connection to WikiLeaks," Zimmerman acknowledges. "But the rest of the quotes in the story did."

Butowsky weighs in: "One day you're going to win an award for having said those things you didn't say." Later, according to the recordings transcribed in the suit, Butowsky acknowledges Wheeler hadn't made any claims of personal knowledge about emails between Rich and WikiLeaks. "I know that's not true," Butowsky says. "If I'm under oath, I would say I never heard him say that."

Both try to keep Wheeler on board, however.

Zimmerman issues instructions for Wheeler's appearance on Sean Hannity's show later that evening. "Reread the story we sent you last night [that contained the invented quotes] and stick to the script," she texts Wheeler.

Despite his misgivings, Wheeler plays along. On Hannity's show, Wheeler says he doesn't personally know about Rich's emails or computers but says that a "very credible" federal investigator says "he laid eyes on the case file." Wheeler offers energetic speculation though not much more: "When you look at that with the totality of everything else that I found in this case it's very consistent for a person with my experience to begin to think well perhaps there were some e-mail communications between Seth and WikiLeaks."

The aftermath

On May 23, Fox News posts an unsigned statement retracting Zimmerman's online story.

The network does not apologize or explain what went wrong. "The article was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting," the statement reads. "Upon appropriate review, the article was found not to meet those standards and has since been removed."

In early June, Wheeler meets with Dianne Brandi, general counsel for the network, and Jay Wallace, the network's president for news. He makes his case that fabricated quotes had knowingly been attributed to him. Neither ever publicly speak of the matter afterward, until now. "Since meeting with Rod Wheeler, we have also met with Malia Zimmerman to try to determine whether Rod was misquoted," Wallace says in a statement to NPR. "As of now, we don't have concrete evidence that he was."

A Fox News executive knowledgeable about the controversy, who would only speak if granted anonymity, tells NPR, "The story was published to the website without review by or permission from senior management." The executive notes that Wallace had placed the broadcast and digital newsgathering teams under the same leadership for the first time after a series of management changes following the forced departure of the network's founder, the late Roger Ailes, and many of his top deputies.

In late June, Wheeler warns Fox News and Butowsky that he may file suit. Three days later, Butowsky tweets: "Fox News story was pulled b/c Rod Wheeler said [he] didn't say a quote ... How much did DNC pay him?" And then Butowsky tweets: "This shows Rod Wheeler has a major battle with the truth."

The two men, thrust together on a common effort for months, have been torn apart by its aftermath. In the interview with NPR, Butowsky insists that he was acting out of a civic-minded spirit for the Riches and not with any partisan or political drive. Zimmerman remains on staff at Fox News, actively reporting on unrelated stories.

A spokeswoman for the FBI tells NPR this week that the agency has played no part in the investigation of the unsolved homicide. And a spokeswoman for Washington's Metropolitan Police Department says, "MPD stands behind its original assertion that Seth Rich was the victim of a botched armed robbery."

http://www.npr.org/2017/08/01/540783715 ... news-story


And AV club: not really academically rigorous, but more to the point:

Continuing our long great day’s journey into night, a new lawsuit filed against Fox News alleges that the White House was preemptively briefed on a since-retracted story involving murdered Democratic National Committee aide Seth Rich—a conspiracy theory that Fox News and a wealthy Trump supporter, with the White House’s alleged encouragement, flouted as a distraction from investigation into possible Russian collusion. Of course, the “alleged” part really only applies to the accusations regarding Fox News’ intent and the White House’s endorsement, along with the charge that its reporter, Malia Zimmerman, fabricated quotes to support her story. We now know that the White House actually was briefed before the story ran, because ex-press secretary Sean Spicer actually said as much.

It’s a revelation that has some troubling implications about the relationship between the Trump administration and his Fox News propaganda arm and their possible collaboration on the spread of harmful misinformation. Which, in any other reality besides our dizzying M.C. Escher hellscape, might actually mean something. Today it just means it’s Tuesday and, reassuringly, that there is no chaos.

NPR has a thorough report on the lawsuit filed by Rod Wheeler, former police detective turned private investigator and Fox News commentator, who was hired to look into Rich’s murder in Washington D.C. If you live a relatively healthy life that involves regular constitutionals and sunshine and not listening to Sean Hannity, and you therefore haven’t heard of Seth Rich, here’s a quick primer: The 27-year-old Rich, a DNC employee, was fatally shot on July 10, 2016, in what police say was a botched robbery attempt.

But because of his DNC ties, and thanks to baseless, “just asking questions” assertions on Fox News, a conspiracy theory took root that Rich was actually murdered by the Clinton campaign because he was the mole who’d sent internal information to WikiLeaks—a theory that would thus magically absolve Russia (and therefore Trump) of any meddling in the election. It was an unfounded, ludicrous theory supported by no one but human Benghazi memes like Hannity, Alex Jones, and Newt Gingrich and their vast army of dead-eyed automatic retweeters, and even Fox News eventually retracted it. And now Wheeler, who became the central figure in this 4chan forensics farce, is suing those he says orchestrated the entire thing and made him the patsy.

According to the suit—which came backed by texts, emails, voicemails, and recorded phone conversations—Wheeler was first contacted by Ed Butowsky, an investor and Trump backer who’d also appeared frequently on Fox. At a meeting also allegedly attended by Fox News’ Zimmerman, Butowsky asked Wheeler to look into the case, ostensibly on behalf of Rich’s family. Approximately two months into that investigation, on April 20, Wheeler was then asked to join Butowsky at the White House, so that the two could meet with Sean Spicer and “keep him abreast of the investigation.” Spicer now tells NPR’s David Folkenflik, rather bizarrely, that the meeting “had nothing to do with advancing the president’s domestic agenda—and there was no agenda,” but instead “they were just informing me of the [Fox] story.”

Here’s where we pause to point out, as Media Matters’ Matthew Gertz did this morning, that Spicer denied any awareness of the Rich story in a May 16 briefing. As Spicer admitted today, that was a lie.

The next part is more open to interpretation, depending on your definition of “joke.” In both a recorded voicemail and a text message, Butowsky contacted Wheeler about 36 hours before the story ran, saying that they have “the full attention of the White House on this” and that Trump himself had reviewed the story and “wants the article out immediately.” Hilarious stuff, Butowsky says, because he was just “joking with a friend,” and was only “kidding about Trump’s involvement” after the two had already met, at the White House, with his press secretary. In fact, both Butowsky and Spicer claim that the president never actually had any contact with Butowsky or saw a draft. (And if he did, it was about adoption.) Nevertheless, Wheeler’s lawsuit alleges that the White House ‘s involvement—both this possibly clever prank about the president reading something, as well as the actual, confirmed meeting with Spicer—pressured him to move forward with the story despite his reservations.

Wheeler’s attempt to paint himself as the morally conflicted pawn beholden to larger forces is the most troublesome part of this entire accusation, and at the crux of his lawsuit is the allegation that Fox News defamed him by manufacturing two false quotes: one citing personal knowledge of email exchanges between Rich and WikiLeaks, and another alleging a DNC attempt to stymie the murder investigation. But in a recording of a three-way call between Wheeler, Butowsky, and Zimmerman, the latter two do seem to acknowledge that Wheeler didn’t say those things (“One day you’re going to win an award for having said those things you didn’t say,” Butowsky tells Wheeler.) And in a separate call, the suit alleges, Butowsky told Wheeler that the quotes were kept in “because that is the way the President wanted the article.”

It’s unclear whether that last call was recorded, but Wheeler’s lawsuit does include emails from Butowsky to Fox News producers and hosts, such as the Fox & Friends team, pushing a White House agenda, coaching them on how to frame the Seth Rich story as proof that “the Russians did not hack our computer systems and ste[a]l emails and there was no collusion” between “Trump and the Russians.” There is also a text from Zimmerman to Wheeler encouraging him to “stick to the script,” including the quotes he says were fabricated.

In addition to accusations of ruining his reputation, Wheeler, who is black, has also charged Fox News with racial discrimination, saying that he received less airtime and compensation than his white colleagues during his time there. Fox News, for its part, denies any such discrimination, and adds that there is “no evidence” that Wheeler was misquoted or had false quotations attributed to him. In a statement, the network’s president of news Jay Wallace says:

“The accusation that FoxNews.com published Malia Zimmerman’s story to help detract from coverage of the Russia collusion issue is completely erroneous. The retraction of this story is still being investigated internally and we have no evidence that Rod Wheeler was misquoted by Zimmerman.”

“Additionally, Fox News vehemently denies the race discrimination claims in the lawsuit — the dispute between Zimmerman and Rod Wheeler has nothing to do with race.”

Fox News retracted its Seth Rich story on May 23 amid criticisms from police, the Rich family, and its own reporters; eventually, even Sean Hannity had to shut up about it. By that time, of course, it had already ballooned into one of our most pervasive conspiracies, a genuine bit of “fake news” with consequences both political and personal that, apparently, is still being “investigated” more than two months later.

But whether you believe all of Wheeler’s claims— or you believe, as Butowsky avers, that “the lawsuit is bullshit” and that Wheeler’s lawyer “pulled this out of his butt to make money”—there is still the confirmation that the White House did receive a briefing from the Trump-aiding architects of that fake news, then later denied it. Today, current press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied it again:

Anyway, tomorrow is Wednesday. Got any big plans for the weekend?

[One Degree]

So what? That was a waste of my time. Big surprise, Trump and Fox have similar interests, as told by a guy who is a admitted liar for money and fired from a police force.

[Oxymandias]

@The Immortal Goon

/thread

[SpecialOlympian]

[Oxymandias]

@Hong Wu

Also you got this from 4chan? Really? That's your source?

I am very disappoint.