Seth Rich’s Brother Files Lawsuit Against Washington Times, Others For Pushing Conspiracy Theories
Earlier this month, the family of slain Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich filed a lawsuit against Fox News over a since-retracted report that pushed a conspiracy theory that Rich had been murdered over his ties to WikiLeaks. Now Rich’s brother, Aaron Rich, has filed a lawsuit against a conservative outlet and others for acting “with reckless disregard for the truth.”
Named in Aaron Rich’s lawsuit are the Washington Times, right-wing activist Matt Couch, Couch’s media company and businessman Ed Butowsky, per CNN Money. If Butowsky sounds familiar, it is because he’s also named in the Fox News lawsuit, as he was a central figure in getting that retracted story written and published.
Butowsky, who has been a leading figure in peddling the theory that Seth Rich was killed in retribution for leaking DNC emails to WikiLeaks, is named in this suit due to participating in a Periscope video hosted by Couch in which he claimed Aaron Rich “needs to come out and admit money in his account.” Couch would reply to Butowsky with the following, according to the lawsuit:
“Ed just put it out there—Aaron Rich accepted money. Aaron Rich had money from WikiLeaks go into his personal account. Think about that. Aaron Rich had WikiLeaks money go into his personal account. Ok?”
As the suit notes, Butowsky and Couch have engaged in advancing a conspiracy that Aaron Rich was was the one who provided the technical know-how to his brother when it came to leaking stolen documents to WikiLeaks for money and then tried to help cover up the crime.
The Times is also named in the suit over an opinion piece it published earlier this month that stated that it is “well known in intelligence circles that Seth Rich and his brother, Aaron Rich, downloaded the DNC emails and was paid by Wikileaks for that information.” The article didn’t cite any sources for that claim. The suit states that the publication was asked to retract the article over the false statements. As of this publication, the piece is still up.
[image via screengrab]
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