Lawsuit accuses Fox News of concocting ‘fake news’ for Trump

NEW YORK: Fox News contrived with a Donald Trump supporter and the White House to fabricate ‘fake news’ to advance the president’s agenda and try to bury speculation that his campaign colluded with Russia, a lawsuit claims.

The suit, filed at the US federal court house in Manhattan on Tuesday, is brought by Rod Wheeler, a Fox News contributor and retired police detective, against the television network, one of its journalists and another of its contributors.

It alleges a May 16 article sought to promote a claim that a murdered Democratic National Committee staffer was the source of leaked DNC emails during last year’s election campaign, and not Russian hackers as the US intelligence community has said.

To bolster that claim, the lawsuit alleges that the article included ‘fabricated’ quotes from Wheeler that he never said.

“The motivation ... shift the blame from Russia and help put to bed speculation that President Trump colluded with Russia in an attempt to influence the outcome of the presidential election,” the 33-page suit alleges.

It quoted one of the defendants — wealthy Trump supporter Ed Butowsky — as claiming that the president reviewed the article “prior to its publication and sought to get the article published ‘immediately.’ — AFP