Not Rod

Tuesday I covered the Rich/Faux Noise story and I thought it was appalling but going nowhere.

Silly me.

Today it’s been the bottom of the hour (:30) lead on MSNBC all day. Just now (3:30 pm ET) watched a 15 minute interview with Butowsky.

And Amy Goodman and Marcy Wheeler evidently think there’s something to it too. On our sites we have a great deal of respect for emptywheel who is not quite so esoteric in person as she is on her site. She doesn’t get interviewed a lot because like Sam Bee she doesn’t police her language much but she’s really funny and also from Michigan so if we meet again a Euchre game is sooo on.

The people who feel it’s significant are convinced that Butowsky’s claims of White House involvement are true (and they are, at least as far as Spicer goes, he admits to it) and that it demonstrates further Obstruction of Justice. I think it’s just garden variety…

Well, I can’t use that word without losing my opportunity at fame and fortune as a TV pundit (hah!) or chance to be Communications Director (more hah!) so let’s just say “campaign disruption”.

But never let it be said I’ll not admit when I’m wrong and this thing definitely has longer legs than I expected.

Explosive Lawsuit: White House & Fox Peddled Seth Rich Conspiracies to Distract from Russia Probe

Incendiary Lawsuit Alleging More Trump Obstruction Shows Benghazi Booster Admitting He Has No Credibility
by emptywheel
August 1, 2017

The African American former cop that Fox blamed for its retracted Seth Rich story, Rod Wheeler, has sued the network and a Fox associate and GOP rat-fucker, Ed Butowsky, for defamation and discrimination.

The suit is designed to be very inflammatory, using the claims Butowsky made about President Trump’s personal involvement pushing the story to attract attention (and increase the pain for Fox).
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If this effort to shift blame for the DNC hack hadn’t already attracted Robert Mueller’s attention, I suspect it will now (and I suspect Wheeler will be very happy to testify).

In fact, though, Wheeler well documented his claim that Butowsky and Fox’ journalist, Malia Zimmerman, fabricated two quotes from him and then refused to retract attribution to him. So the lawsuit may well have legs.

But I’m amused by two other details Wheeler includes in the suit. First, he shows Butowsky, a Dallas-based financial advisor, claiming to have revealed most of what we know about Benghazi.
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So the douchebag behind the Seth Rich – Wikileaks conspiracy is also the douchebag behind Benghazi.

Which is nifty, because Wheeler also includes quotes of Butowsky admitting he has no credibility.
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Wheeler then goes on to allege that Butowsky threatened to extort Sy Hersh.

Butowsky deleted his Twitter account this morning (though not yet his Tumblr account), so perhaps he recognizes that he’s at some financial exposure.

But I’m grateful that, in the process, he has admitted that he — and his Benghazi pseudo-scandal — have no credibility.