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Lawsuit: Fox coordinated with White House on false story

News headlines scroll above the Fox News studios in the News Corporation headquarters building in New York, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017. Fox contributor Rod Wheeler, who worked on the Seth Rich case, claims Fox News fabricated quotes implicating the murdered Democratic National Committee staffer in the Wikileaks scandal and that President Donald Trump pressured Fox to publish the story. He sued Fox for defamation on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) News headlines scroll above the Fox News studios in the News Corporation headquarters building in New York, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017. Fox contributor Rod Wheeler, who worked on the Seth Rich case, claims Fox News fabricated quotes implicating the murdered Democratic National Committee staffer in the Wikileaks scandal and that President Donald Trump pressured Fox to publish the story. He sued Fox for defamation on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

By Associated Press August 2, 2017 1 min read

NEW YORK (AP) – A new lawsuit lays out a tale of Trump allies, the White House and Fox News Channel conspiring to push a false story about Democratic leaks and an unsolved killing in order to distract attention from the Russia investigation.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday against Fox by an investigator who had been looking into the killing of Seth Rich, a former Democratic National Committee staff member killed in 2016 in what police say was a botched robbery.

The investigator, Rod Wheeler, alleges that Fox quoted him as saying things he never said and was willing to show President Donald Trump its story before it was posted online.

Fox denies this.

The White House says Trump had no knowledge of the false story before it was posted.