FOXA Fox Corporation

By Joe Flint 

This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (September 20, 2017).

Fox News and its parent company, 21st Century Fox, have filed a motion to dismiss a defamation lawsuit from a contributor who claimed he was misquoted in an article about the murder of a Democratic National Committee employee.

The defamation suit was filed in New York federal court earlier this summer by Rod Wheeler, a former Washington, D.C., homicide detective and Fox News contributor. It alleged he was misquoted to bolster a conspiracy theory that DNC staffer Seth Rich was murdered in retaliation for leaking sensitive emails to WikiLeaks regarding Hillary Clinton's presidential run.

Mr. Wheeler, who had been retained by the Rich family as an investigator, alleged in his initial complaint that the Fox News story made up two quotes and attributed them to him.

In court filings this week to dismiss the lawsuit against the network, its parent company and Malia Zimmerman, the author of the article, Fox's lawyers argue that Mr. Wheeler's claims are without merit. The court documents allege that Mr. Wheeler wasn't misquoted or defamed, that he reviewed and didn't object to a draft of the article that included the quotes before it was published, and that he made similar statements in television interviews.

Fox claims that Mr. Wheeler said in an on-air interview with a local TV station that he had sources saying there was information that could link Mr. Rich to WikiLeaks. Mr. Wheeler said in that interview that information about DNC interference in the murder investigation would "come out tomorrow," allegedly referring to the impending Fox News story, according to the court documents.

"He made substantially the same statements on the air in several on-camera interviews before and after the Fox News report," the court filing states. "His defamation claim itself is founded on a falsehood."

Regarding the Fox News article, the company's lawyers also said in the motion to dismiss that they had evidence Mr. Wheeler "confirmed in writing that he was reviewing a draft containing those quotes before he provided additional quotes for the story."

Fox News retracted the article after a backlash over its veracity, saying the piece didn't receive proper "editorial scrutiny." Mr. Rich was killed last July in Washington in what police believe may have been a botched robbery.

Mr. Wheeler had claimed that White House officials were kept apprised of the story as it was developing earlier this year and that President Donald Trump saw a version of it before publication on the Fox News website. Mr. Wheeler argued that the article was designed to advance a political agenda for the Trump administration by providing an alternative narrative for those disputing that Russia hacked the DNC and interfered with the election.

Mr. Wheeler's complaint said he had received messages from Fox News contributor Ed Butowsky -- who had connected the former D.C. detective to the Rich family -- saying that the president had read the piece and "wants the article out immediately."

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has previously said Mr. Trump wasn't aware of the article and that the White House had no involvement.

Mr. Butowsky was also sued by Mr. Wheeler in his Fox News defamation complaint, in part for suggesting on Twitter that Mr. Wheeler wasn't telling the truth when he denied making the statements attributed to him by Fox News.

21st Century Fox and Wall Street Journal-parent News Corp share common ownership.

In a separate motion to dismiss, lawyers for Mr. Butowsky argue that he shouldn't be sued in New York because he lives in Texas, that he wasn't involved in "the drafting or making of the defamatory statements," and that the incident didn't amount to "actual malice."

The Fox News court filing also said Mr. Wheeler is arguing his case in the wrong forum as his contributor contract calls for all disputes with the company to be settled through arbitration. The lawyers claim that includes his accusation that he was discriminated against and deprived airtime and the same compensation as white colleagues because he is black. Fox News has denied the charge.

"Fox's effort to compel this legal proceeding into a confidential arbitration process is an attempt at keeping people in the dark on what now is a matter of serious public concern," Mr. Wheeler's lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, said Tuesday. "We are confident that our client will ultimately be vindicated in a public court of law."

Mr. Wigdor, who has filed several other claims against the network for clients alleging sexual misconduct and discrimination, has said at various times that the discredited story, along with allegations that Fox News turned a blind eye to a culture of sexual harassment at the network, is cause for British regulators to block 21st Century Fox's efforts to acquire majority ownership of British pay-TV giant Sky PLC.

In court documents, the company argues that allegation about the bid for Sky and the accusation that the original article was part of an attempted coverup relating to the Russian involvement in the DNC hacking are "irrelevant" and "should be ignored."

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 20, 2017 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

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