Thread by @davidfolkenflik

THREAD: Two years ago today, I reported this on Fox News' discredited report about Seth Rich's killing & the hacked Dem emails.

Fox News has never apologized to the Rich family.

(His parents sued Fox in March 2018; the suit's dismissal is on appeal.)

npr.org/2017/08/01/540…

We had reported Ed Butowsky was behind the scenes, seeking to discredit hacking story so damaging to Trump:

npr.org/2017/08/16/543…

@Isikoff's new investigative podcast #Conspiracyland goes deep on the figures and wild theories fueling the Seth Rich fever swamps, as well as the Fox story. He focuses a lot on Butowsky.

In Conspiracyland, @Isikoff reports several new wrinkles.

news.yahoo.com/introducing-co…

A fmr US prosecutor assigned to the Rich case (local crimes in DC are handled by fed prosecutors) tells him Russian trolls pushed the Seth Rich/DNC leak conspiracy theory within a few days of Rich's death.

US intelligence chiefs say 2016 hacks of Dems ordered by Russian govt.

Fox had cited "law enforcement sources" as well as a "federal investigator who reviewed an FBI forensic report" to report Rich had sent 1000s of emails to Wikileaks. Fox's "federal investigator" purportedly reviewed FBI forensic report showing how Rich contacted Wikileaks.

Nope. As @Isikoff (and I and others) have reported, Fox could find no evidence of the sources. And Fox had said *nothing* about them after its lone quoted source, a consultant on the Fox payroll, protested that words were put in his mouth.

#Conspiracyland also reports FBI *did* review Rich's computer - because unusual activity after Rich's death suggested foreign actors were attempting to hack into his email accounts.

Anyway. the series tells us a lot about the way politics works now. I make cameo in eps 4 and 5.

Coda: There were a lot of lawsuits filed. One was by Butowsky against me for $57M. At present, it is ongoing.