rod wheeler did not talk about asking for a job. i told rod come along and meet him.aybe somehow you can smooze and get to develop a relationship with him. another point rod wheeler sent me a text message saying can you get me back in to see sean. i want to give him some information. i have a text message that i'll bring to you. >> all right. good. the fox news retracted the story as we now nope. >> right. >> do you still believe there is something to the suggestion? >> i don't believe there's anything in that story that isn't accurate. >> you believe it's all accurate. >> let me finish. i believe rod wheeler's saying that he was misquoted is the reason they pulled it. rod wheeler wasn't misquoted. what rod wheeler did the night before, he had a crush or has a crush on a lady named maria morocco with fox five washington and he leaked the story to her the night before. she wrote a lot of stuff. and i have a text message showing rod saying i need to sue fox 5 because they misquoted me. so now fox 5 misquoted rod wheeler. and then you got to bring in this naur named wigd

this is rod wheeler and this guy disagreeing.o john's point, what are you seeing here -- sorry to sigh -- but what you are seeing here is a coordinated effort to deflect and blame where there is not deflection and blame to go around. this is a murder, plain and simple. that's what the police have determined, and you're seeing it being twisted for political and partisan reasons. even if it didn't come in the midst of a long-running and what i think to be fundamentally disingenuous attack on the idea of fake news -- i put it in air quotes because that's not what it is -- this is creation out of nothing and using the death of a kid. let's not forget that. this is painful enough for seth rich's family, but now to say, really, he was a mole within the dnc leaking all this information, i can't imagine losing a child much less having him dragged through the mud in this way where there is no real evidence here to suggest that's the case. it's a bad look broadly speaking for the white house and i think an absolute repudiation that somehow

we know rod wheeler's attorneys are looking forward to the discovery process. would like to depose people, like for example sean spicer who was white house press secretary in april when spicer had a meeting with wheeler and this gop doaner at the white house where they talked about this, this theory that has hurt the slain dnc staffer's family so much. because we know there was a white house meeting, it creates a sense that maybe there is more to the story but there's a lot we don't know. we don't know how much evidence wheeler really has to back up his assertions. >> that's one of the good things about litigation, right? you have discovery and you only know what you show. so there will be that eventually. the only thing we know for sure at this point is that the family of seth rich is devastated by this controversy and these conspiracy theories. the statement they put out is hopefully this lawsuit will bring to an end the connection of our son and his death to this. there is no proof that rich was connected to wikileaks that's come from police as far as i unde

doug is an attorney for rod wheeler, joining us from new york.anks very much for joining us. what's your response to what we just heard from butowsky? >> well, you know, i watched that interview last evening with your colleague, chris cuomo, and actually was highly entertaining because much of what he said made absolutely no sense. you know, take, for instance, the text message that he sent to rod wheeler. he said that the president read the article, he wanted it out immediately, and now he's trying to say that that text was somehow a joke. i mean, this was not a laughing matter. this was a text message. there was no emoji at the end, no smiley face. it wasn't a joke. ed butowsky, as he said in his text, was in conversations with the white house, with the president. he was actually brought rod wheeler to the white house to meet with sean spicer. sean spicer admits that. and what we see, actually, is that sean spicer says the meeting had no agenda. they just sort of arrived at the white house, and they had no agenda. that makes no sense. and then

>> i think rod wheeler decided to go along with this.ad to make a conscious decision in the beginning that he was comfortable with this fox figure, this clear trump supporter being the benefactor there. i do think rod wheeler did not fully accept or appears from his public statements to have not been fully comfortable with the conclusions of metropolitan police that it was clearly a botched armed robbery or the assertions by democrats and by the rich family that there's no links. on the other hand -- and you've seen that from some of the responses that the rich family has had for some of the things that rod wheeler has said. on the other hand, rod wheeler strongly feels and has material strongly supporting the idea that he did not want to be saying publicly a lot of these things that were cut against what he knew he couldn't support. >> i want to play a little bit of rod wheeler when he was on sean hannity making the case about seth rich. take a listen. >> what did you discover in terms of the contacts with wikileaks? >> right. well that

victim's family sent a cease and desist letter to the private investigator, a man by the name of rod wheelerthat appeared to be the end of it. part two, the private investigator rod kwheerl is now suing fox news. he said the reporter who filed the original story deliberately misquoted him to create a fake news story. the lawsuit alleges mr. wheeler's reputation is destroyed by defendants' decision to did he fame him. but it's another claim that wheeler is making that's getting the attention today. that the white house and he had bow to you ski under the met work to publish the story in order to distract from the russia investigationment 9 lawsuit offers up a text and a voice mail as evidence. the text and voice mail were sent 36 hours before the story first appeared on fox news.com. we asked rod wheeler for the audio of that voice mail. here is the part of the message that he provided us. >> hey, rod. it's ed. so a couple minutes ago i got a note that we have the full attention of the white house on this. and tomorrow let's close this deal, whatever we've got to do. but you can feel free to

>> right, rod wheeler claims he asked her to remove the quotes. she doesn't, and then in the material that's recording their exchanges. she said, this 1 what fox news told me to do, keep them in there and keep the onus on you. he goes and complains to the new president of the fox news division. he explains everything that happens and gets no response, no satisfaction. jay, the president says they also talked to zimmerman, and after those two discussions, he says, after ten weeks, they just don't know what happened yet. >> this is the president of the united states allegedly according to a text message saying, to somebody at fox news, we really like this story, please get it out there, it's going to undercut this idea that the russians were hacking into our e-mails and giving them to wikileaks in order to also help me win the election. i don't want that story out there, so we need to come out with an alternative narrative. i have a statement from seth rich's family. we can't speak to the evidence you now have we hope this brings an end to the most

obviously it's a lawsuit filed by rod wheeler.s is rod wheeler's version of events, but it's pretty damming, if you read through the claims made in the lawsuit. >> has there been a clear message from the white house on what they think out? butowski was -- was asked if he had any knowledge of this on the day that the fox news came out allegedly linking the dnc and seth rich. he said i don't know anything about that, he told npr yes, i did meet with them, but they wanted to keep me updated. now yesterday at the press briefing, sarah huckabee sanders who's now sandeean's successor that role. and so that's where we're at. pending lawsuit, we're going to find out more, we're going to get the other side of this, but i would encourage folks to go and read the wheeler lawsuit, there are claims in it extensively as it relates to fox news and the white house. >> the claim of course, everyone should have their say, but also doesn't look good for fox news if its at all true that there was any coordination or any creation of a story. >> wheele

the retraction is still being investigated internally, and we have no evidence that rod wheeler was misquotedzimmerman. additionally, fox news vehemently denies the race discrimination claims in the lawsuit. the dispute has nothing to do with race. the story was first reported by npr. wheeler was hired to investigate seth rich's death, quote: the president just read the article, he wants the article out immediately. but he now says he was only joking, and he challenges >> wasn't serious because rod wheeler was always looking for a job because he has no money, and by the way, this lawsuit is all about rod wheeler trying to get money because he messed up. by the way, i've never talked to president trump in my life, and trump has need to do with this. >> the white house spokesman told me yesterday that butowsky had asked for ten minutes to catch up, didn't ask him to do anything, and spicer took no action. >> it doesn't bother me that the press secretary would take a meeting with somebody involved in the media about a story. none of that was disclosed. they had a conversation, and that was the e

spicer, at that time the white house press secretary, ed butowsky, the investor and backer, and rod wheeler, the investigator, all say that they were there april 12th at a relatively brief, maybe ten, 15-minute meeting, excuse me, april 20th, this meeting at which butowsky and wheeler unpack for sean spicer what it is they've learned in this investigation. and sean spicer told me last night that he took the meeting as a courtesy, that butowsky was a friend from republican circles and that he was happy to give him an ear for a brief meeting. butowsky says it wasn't really a meeting about that at all, he was simply trying the help wheeler see if he could find a job, something both wheeler and spicer say is not true, but what is clear is from the e-mails and voice mails and texts an other materials subsequently is that butowsky invokes the white house, invokes powerful people and, yes, even inadvocates the idea that president trump has read drafts of the fox story before it goes to fox news' site and on the air. while that's not been proven, but it's certainly the pressure point from butowsky

rod wheeler is claiming fox knowingly used made-up quotes from him. as a pawnhe was used in a plan by the white house to "shipped the blame from russia" speculation.ed wheeler was being paid for investigate the rich killing by a trump supporter in texas named ed petoskey. the lawsuit also claimed he received a text message from and saying "not to add any more .ressure to the president read the article. he wants it out immediately." he alleges he told him "one day, you will win an award for having said those things you didn't say." we will have more on the story later in the broadcast. we will be speaking with marcy wheeler. the u.s. is testing an intercontinental ballistic missile this morning from the vandenberg air force base in california, amid rising tensions with north korea. on july 28, north korea launched a similar missile, which experts say may be capable of reaching the west coast of the u.s. on on tuesday, secretary of state rex tillerson said the u.s. is willing to engage in direct talks with north korea, and claimed the us is nonot seeking

fox gave this theory a lot of credibility for a week in may, partly thanks to rod wheeler but now wheelerrked for them as a contributor. the donor was one of their contributors. so the allegations about the white house much softer ground and much luckily for us we have a man that can put meat on our bones. joining us now is the man that filed the lawsuit. former washington d.c. homicide detective. and he has with him his attorney, jean christianson. let's get some of the allegations. and we interviewed ed betousky and he had had stiff responses. i want to get your response to his arg imeument. the main allegation is that they used you to forward a lie, essentially, that they misquoted you. is that your argument? >> let me start out by saying that my hearts and prayers go out to the rich family. they always have. i really tried hard to find a murderer, not to debunk a russian narrative or support a russian narrative too, find the murderer. and while i was in the process to find that murderer, behind the scenes what i did not know is that this reporter and rich guy had another plan in mind

the man filing the lawsuit is named rod wheeler, fox news contributor, former washington d.c.ective who is now a private investigator. he was looking into the murder of a young man named seth rich. 27-year-old staffer at the democratic national committee. he was shot and killed in july of 2016 during the height of the campaign and a couple of weeks before those damaging e-mails about hillary clinton hacked from the dnc began pouring out into the public. wheeler's lawsuit claims that a fox news reporter made up quotes from him for a story that essentially said that seth rich, not russia, was responsible for releasing those controversial dnc e-mails and that somehow his murder was connected to all that. according to the suit, it was a fake news story conjured up to quote, help put to bed speculation that president trump colluded with russia in an attempt to fix the outcome of the election. here's where the white house and president trump allegedly get involved. wheeler the investigator was being paid by a trump supporter and fellow fox news contributor named ed bufowsky. to inve

>> i had a meeting with sean spicer and brought rod wheeler along. and it was about this audio recording that of -- saying there is a mirror copy of the hard drive of seth rich's at the cart division at the fbi. >> you know he says you got his reporting wrong. you took two and two and made 45 out of it. >> maybe that's his math. i'm not saying anything. listen to it. i'm not con cluzing anything at all. >> when the source of the material says your conclusion about it is wrong -- >> it's not my conclusion. what is my conclusion? >> you saw it as something that was important enough to bring it to sean spicer. he just took a meeting? >> yeah, i said i was going to be in town. and rod wheeler was a tag along because at the last minute i thought why don't you join me. and get to know sean and meet and so on. my conversation with sean about this recording lasted about one minute. he said, ed, i don't know anything about it and i don't want to know anything about it. and we ened up talking with other things believe it or not because we get our shirts at the

. >> reporter: his name is rod wheeler.ctive and fox news contributor. and now he's filed a lawsuit against fox news. wheeler claims he was used to help fabricate a story connecting the murder of seth rich to the wikileaks release of thousands of e-mails from are the democratic national committee. the idea being that rich was murdered by some sort of dnc operative in retaliation for the leaks. all of this despite the fact that police say rich's murder was the result of a botched burglary and that this is key, authorities had already determined that russians hacked the dnc e-mail nzs and gave them to wikileaks. what was the goal? >> i think their goal based on the e-mails and the voice mail messages that i got from the ed bukowski was to dedunk this russian hacking it narrative. >> reporter: butowsky is a financial news commentator. the alleged goal to detract from the russia investigation was not only push bid butowsky but according to the lawsuit it was done in coordination with the trump white house with butowsky even arr

the this whole idea something was coordinated with rod wheeler that's absolute nonsense. >> reporter: this text message is one the suits most eye popping claims. not to as any e. anymore pressure but the president just read the article. he wants it out immediately. the it's all you up to you. butowsky now says he was just kidding around. >> this was tongue in cheek talking. >>reporter: the white house pushing back as well. >> the president didn't have knowledge of the story. the white house didn't have involvement in the story. >> reporter: but there is a link to the white house. butowsky and wheeler met with then secretary sean spicer a month before the story came out. butowsky telling cnn he wanted to present audio. >> did he know why you wanted to meet with him. >> no. as a matter of fact -- yeah. because i said to sean ai was going to be in town. the my conversation with sean about this recording lasted about one minute. he said, ed, i don't know anything about it. i don't want to know anything about it. i can't do anything. >>reporter: spicer says it was just a ten-minute courtes

and a fox news contributor rod wheeler was defamed back in may.t the trump white house knew about the story and there's even a suggestion that the president wrote a draft in advance. allard darcy is hire to talk about what that all meant. wheeler was a former white house detective. and he was hired to investigate seth rich's murder. who is seth rich? >> seth rich was a democratic staffer who was shot to death on the street. right when he was shot to death, there were these conspiracy theories saying that he was the one who leaked thousands of documents to wikileaks. >> that wasn't russian hackers, that it was this disgruntled staffer. >> what happened was the story died down and fox news ran a story back in may which claimed to show evidence that they had a federal investigator who had been told that the fbi looked into this and there was evidence that he leaked the documents. >> what we didn't know at the time, was that fox news story was later retracted and discredited. wheeler was quoted in the story, but what we didn't know is this dallas busi

in february this year, a trump supporter hired a private eye named rod wheeler, supposedly to get to. supposedly. he now says that he butowsky was using him. he is now suing in federal court, not just butowsky but fox news saying they fabricated reports that they attributed to him, wheeler. he has said that the report was revealed by trump himself before it was altered and published. he said that quotes were included because that's the way the president wanted the article. and yesterday were sarah huckabee sanders said the president was not involved. >> the white house involvement in the story, beyond that, this is ongoing litigation and i would refer you to the actual parties involved. the president just read the article and he wants it out immediately. fox news has responded with the following statement. the accusation that fox news.com published malia zimmerman's story to help detract from coverage of the russia collusion issue is completely erroneous. it is still being investigated internally and we have no evidence that rod wheeler was misquoted by zimmerman. joining me from pol

the dispute between zimmerman and rod wheeler has nothing to do with race. t wheeler was hired to investigate seth rich's death. he said he challenges ask wheeler's allegations. >> this lawsuit is all about rod wheeler trying to get money because he messed up. i never talked to president trump in my life. howie: a white house spokesman told me a trump supporter asked for 10 minutes to catch up. they described the story in progress, and spicer took no action. >> it doesn't bother me the press secretary would take a meeting with somebody about a story. the president didn't have knowledge of this story. the white house didn't have any involvement in the story. howie: wheeler says he asked fox to remove the parts that he says were invented. it didn't stop wheeler from promoting the story on fox news. nobody looks good here. the courts will decide whether wheeler has a case. but one thing is clear. this compounds the tragedy for seth rich's family. is the press taking a fair approach on the president's new policy on legal immigration? then you belong at bass pro s

joining us now, the man who filed the lawsuit, rod wheeler, and his attorney.start with you. you claimed that the fox reporter, malia zimmerman, made up two quotes in this article atri attributing them to you. what do you say ifalse? >> well, the quotes that she added to her story specifically references me as saying that i knew for a fact that the decedent in this case, seth rich, sent e-mails to wikileaks. and that just was totally fabricated. i never said that. let me also go back real quickly, stephanie, and say this. my heart and prayers go out to the rich family. i hate, stephanie, that they have to endure all of this stuff that's in the media. i even reached out to the father of aaron rich the day after this story broke -- >> seth rich. >> that's right, seth rich. the day after this story broke. i said, this is terrible for this story to be published, i told him that. i said i'm hoping that fox will retract that story because those quotes clearly did not come from me. >> you went on fox news, though, after the story was published. >> right. >> why didn't

there's a lot in the lawsuit we don't know but we know sean spicer met with rod wheeler and the guy,onor who was bankrolling this investigation. that's what sarah huckabee sanders was addressing this afternoon. spicer and sanders were saying this is no big deal but it means this conspiracy theory was right inside the west wing, that at least it was being talked about right inside the west wing. they say the president knew nothing about it and had no involvement in the story but we'll see how -- if this lawsuit progresses, if we learn more about what happened. >> you've read through the details of the story. >> i've looked at the details on this, and this is a key piece of what amounts to this russian collusion with the trump campaign. it actually goes back to the e-mails that were released on june 4 and about the donald trump jr. meeting on june 9 because if you recall, on that june 4 meeting, there was a promise of a whole bunch of russian documents that would be compromising on hillary clinton. for some reason, the press has seemed to drop this one and people have forgotten about i

they did not stand behind the reporting in which rod wheeler was quoted. that says all you need to know about fox's confidence in the reporting behind the conspiracy theory. >> but the real basis of this, we know fox radio retracted the story. what's interesting now is the ties to the white house, actually a second page to the quote from the president of fox news, the news executive did not address a question about the story's allegedly partisan origins and fox news declined to allow zimmerman to comment for the story. what's most interesting is the white house's ties to the story. as we already heard this morning on a different story, the president and his lawyers certainly love the term fake news. >> yes, but, again, this shows possibly if the allegations are you true the white house is actively creating fake news, that's the takeaway. >> it's going to go before court so this will stop being hearsay. >> yes. thanks very much for reporting. >> coming up next, trump loves his generals. he's surrounding himself with top brass even though he's never served i

. >> his name is rod wheeler.e's a former dc homicide detector and fox news contributor and now he's filed a lawsuit against fox news. he claims he was used to help fabricate a story connecting the murder of seth rich to the wikileaks leak. all of this despite the fact that police say rich's murder was the result of a botched burglary and that this is key, authorities had already determined that russians hacked the dnc e-mails and gave them to wikileaks. >> what was the goal? >> i think their goal, based on the e-mails and the voice mail messages that i got was to debunk this russian hacking narrative. >> reporter: ed is a gop supporter and fox news financial commentator. the alleged goal to distract from the russia investigation was not only pushed by him but according to the lawsuit it was done in coordination with the trump white house even arranging wheeler to meet with sean spicer. spicer has acknowledged meeting them but said he was unaware of any contact involving the president. still, just two days before

homicide detective rod wheeler, who was hired by a third party to investigate the murder on behalf ofhe family, says mr. rich was communicating with wikileaks before he was killed. this issue is so big now that the entire russia collusion narrative is hanging by a thread. if, in fact -- take seth out of it -- there was a whistle blower within the dnc, a truth teller that actually was the source for wikileaks and not russia working with the trump campaign -- that are -- these are questions that i have a moral obligation to ask. >> again, wrong, debunked, you get this here. oliver darcy, cnn senior media reporter and david chalian is back with me. you know, it was the intel chiefs saying no, it was russia all along to you. tell me about the lawsuit that was filed today. >> there's a lot to unpack in this lawsuit but essentially, what it's claiming is that this wealthy republican businessman with ties to the white house, worked with a private investigator, fox news contributor rod wheeler, to push this story out there that seth rich possibly leaked the e-mails from the dnc to wikileaks,

fox contributor rod wheeler claims a fox producer made up statements from him linking the unsolved death of seth rich to the hacking of dnc e-mails by wikileaks. wheeler says he and a trump donor that was former white house press secretary sean spicer certificate to review the -- sean spicer to review the story. fox retracted the story later. the president of fox news said today the retraction of the story is being investigated internally, and we have no evidence that rod wheeler was miss coated. >>> coming up, details on a deadly confrontation between deputies and a suspect in northern california. after the break, what we're learning about what happened. >>> there were shots fired. two officers were wounded. >> it is cool at the coast. what's it going to be like tomorrow? we'll have the details. . >>> the nation's biggest block parties held tonight with the idea that making friends makes us safer. how national night out is branching out in a new direction. ction. things are heating up for the wta.mer. time to play. when the us open series hits stanford for the bank of the west classic,

private investigator rod wheeler says fox news hired him to investigate rich's murder, then intentionallymisquoted him. the story suggested rich leaked e-mails from the dnc to wikileaks. wheeler claims president trump and white house officials reviewed that story, urged fox to run it to divert attention the story was later retracted. >>> 6:49. attorney general jeff sessions is instructing police officers to conduct themselves, quote, in a lawful way. this after president trump commented that officers should treat suspected criminals more roughly. >> peter alexander following this story from the white house. >> reporter: good morning from here at the white house. new backlash today from within the administration after the president's recent remarks to police, appearing to encourage them roughing up suspects. the white house calling that comment a joke, head of drug enforcement agency just delivered a stunning rebuke, telling thousands of agents to disregard the president's message that he said condoned police misconduct. also this morning, the president's aides pushing back on questions ab

rod wheeler says the narrative was intended to undercut the argument that russia was trying to help trump win the collectel. he says they fabricated quotes and attributed them to him. >> two or three days before the story was published, she sent me a version of the story that did not contain any of the quotes. it was the story that was published that the quotes were added to and that's when i immediately, let me underline that word immediately pushed back on her. when i confronted them, they said the quotes were left in there because that is the way the president wanted them. i said why is the president involved in a murder investigation. >> we're going to follow the paper trail. the president wanted the article out immediately. >> joining us for the reporting on that story, the chief correspondent for yahoo news. you heard them talking about it, a realitiy donald trump supporter and fox news commentator said we have to investigate this, and said the president saw the story before it posted online and wanted fox to get it out quickly. >> he says he never spoke to the president in his life

rod wheeler, his new lawsuit against fox says he was misquoted in those headlines, in those articles to push fake news story. here is what he told me. >> why do you think, as you allegation they made up quotes from you. i know for a fact that ed who was the individual funding my investigation had been in contact with people from the white house and he was the one that was pushing this russian hacking narrative by the way i didn't know a whole lot about. i wasn't trying to debunk a narrative or support a narrat e narrative, i was trying to find a murderer. i know that and ed admitted himself. >> he may not have known a lot about that. this is all coming to a head tonight for the trump white house. we have obtained a voice mailer from wheeler. this is a may 14th voice mail. a message left by that man. this just to put it in context day and a half before that story first appeared on fox news. here is a portion of the audio. >> hey, rod, it's ed. a couple minutes ago i got a note that we have the full, uh, attention of the white house on this. and, tomorrow, let's close this deal. whatev

the suit was filed by a contributor for the network named rod wheeler.aims a fox news em employee fabricated quotes attributed to him. he also accuses fox news of working with the white house to conduct the story. >> fox news has yet to discipline anyone as far as we know. two months after pulling the fake news story. all of this leaving employees confused and angry. let's discuss the new reporting with brian stelter and david who broke the news about the suit now facing fox. david you broke the news, what is the report from inside fox of what's being done? i mean look. there are rules of journalism. when something's wrong you retract it, apologize, acknowledge and often fire people. what has fox done? >> fox has done apparently very little if any of that. after the story imploded on them in a public way, rod wheeler, the private investigator at the heart of this in whose mouth it appears to be fabricated by the reporter for fox news who worked on this. he went to jay wallace and the chief lawyer for fox. diane brandy who's been there through the storms.

. >> reporter: back in may, the now retracted story quoted rod wheeler, a former d.c.omicide detective. wheeler said the fbi had seth rich's laptop, and that the laptop showed rich had been leaking the emails that helped sink hillary campaign. >> absolutely. that's confirmed. >> reporter: wheeler now says fox news and a wealthy ricontr butoedcook up the story to distract from russian election hacking and possible collusion by the trump campaign. the first page of his lawsuit features a text to wheeler from dallas investor and trump supporter ed botowski. not to add any more pressure, but the president just read the article. he wants the article out immediately. it's now all up to you. but don't feel the pressure. >> thank you for the message. unfortunately, i cannot discuss any of the details surrounding the lawsuit. >> reporter: wheeler is not talking. but the lawsuit alleges fox ruined his reputation with two false quotes, including my investigation shows someone within the d.c. government, democratic national committee, or clinton team is blocking the murder investi

and here is rod wheeler's account of that meeting as related to msnbc stephanie rule earlier today. >an spicer was very nice guy. he and ed mainly did the talking. i explained to him where i was with my investigation. and i was hoping that maybe the white house or the justice department could assist the d.c. police department with technical support, things like that, resources. and sean said, well, i'm not sure what we can do. but he said i'll definitely put you in touch with somebody at the justice department. >> so. according to spicer it was a ten-minute meeting with no topic and the white house had nothing to do with the story. according to butowsky talked about the story and spicer said he could not get the fbi involved. we don't know who's telling the truth about that meeting. or about the president's personal involvement in the story. perhaps the only way we will ever know is just by watching this lawsuit play out. joining us is paul butler, author of the new book choke hold, policing black men. thank you so much, paul, for being here. it's great to talk to you. >> great to be

we have no evidence that rod wheeler was misquoted by zimmerman.mily of seth rich still in mourning begged fox to stop pushing this record. they tell cnn today, while we can't speak to the evidence that you now have, we are hopeful that this brings an end to what has been the most emotionally difficult time in our lives and an end to the conspiracy theories surrounding our beloved seth. wolf? >> alex, thanks very much for that report. >>> still ahead, one republican senator has had enough. he's speaking out against the president right now. scolding his own party at the same time. a scathing assessment of the gop, right after the break. done.rs. super-cool notebooks. done. that's mom taking care of business. but who takes care of mom? office depot/office max. this week, filler paper just one cent with five dollar minimum purchase. ♪taking care of business. pcountries thatk mewe traveled,t what is your nationality and i would always answer hispanic. so when i got my ancestry dna results it was a shocker. i'm everything. i'm from all nations. i would

the may 2016 article allegedly contained fabricated quotes from rod wheeler - a former homicide detective investigating the case. the story fueled conspiracy theories that rich was murdered in connection with a massive wikileaks data leak of 20-thousand dnc emails. those reports turned out to be false and fox ultimately retracted that story. the story was reportedly discussed with then white house press secretary sean spicer. shortly after spicer denied any knowledge o late tuesday spicer admitted he did have that meeting at the white house with wheeler and a well connected republican donor. the donor - ed butowsky then sent a text message to wheeler saying the president read the article and wanted it out immediately. white house press secretary, sarah huckabee sanders said the president had no knowledge of the story - and that neither the president nor the white house were involved in the story. new developments in the health care debate. a bi-partisan effort now getting underway in the senate. republican "lamar alexander" and democrat "patty muray" have announced plans to work together

rod wheeler is suing fox claiming he was falsely quoted as saying there was a link between rich and wikileaks said he and a donor met with sean spicer. and that donor texted the investigator to say president trump signed off on the story before it was published. the article was later retracted. the white house denies any involvement. >>> so president trump may feel like the accommodations at the white house with its 132 rooms and 35 bathrooms are not quite up to par. he reportedly told wealthy members of his new jersey golf club, quote, the white house is a real dump. according to golf magazine, that was the president's explanation for spending so much time at hess own properties. the white house denies the conversation. but former first daughter, chelsea clinton took offense, tweeting thank you to all the white house maids, chefs, butlers and workers. >>> and north korea's launch of a ballistic missile, it turns out a commercial airliner had passed very close to the missile' before last friday's launch. the news comes as secretary of state tillerson calls for dialog with north korea, adding

police detective rod wheeler of fox news contributor. he says they imaccurately reported his findings implicating rich because that's how the president wanted the article. another fox commentator coordinated the effort by the president and fox to publish the story. willard's complaint says bu tow ski left him this emeigh on the 14th. >> a couple of minutes ago i got a note we've got the full attention of the white house on this, and tomorrow let's close this deal. >> the same day a text message from butowsky said the president just read the article. he wants the art caught out immediately. butowsky now says he just meeting. in a statement said, the white house had nothing to do with the story. current press secretary sarah huckabee sanders was also asked about it. the president had no knowledge of the story and it's untrue the white house had a statement in the story. >> the accusation that fox news.com published the story to help detrekt covering of the russia issue is completely erroneous. cbs news, the white house. >>> he'll be held p

investigator and fox news contributor rod wheeler is suing fox claiming he was falsely quoted to support the fake stories. >> wheeler also says practice president trump signed off on that story and pushed for it to be published. the article was later retracted. the white house denies any involvement. >>> as for the white house the president is renewing and now a new effort on capitol hill to just fix it. >> republican and democratic senators are now working on a bipartisan effort to stabilize president obama's affordable care act. maggie rulli has details. >> reporter: days after the effort to repeal and replace obamacare crumbled in the senate, now a new hope. >> i think we can resolve this problem but it's going to take more bipartisan work. >> we have a lot of bipartisan discussions going on right now. more than we've had in months. >> reporter: both sides are calling for a solution with republican senator lamar alexander and democratic senator patty murray teaming up saying they want to see federal payments to insurers that help millions of low and moderate income americans afford co

police detective rod wheeler, a fox news contributor. he investigated the case but now claims that the network inaccurately reported his findings as implicating rich because "that is the way the president wanted the article." the suit also claims that ed butowski, a wealthy trump supporter and also a fox commentator, coordinated want effort by the president and fox to publish the story. the complaint says butowski left him this voice mail on may 14: >> reporter: the same day, a text message from butowski said, "the president just read the article. he wants the article out immediately." butowski now says he was kidding. then-press secretary sean spicer admits that he met with wheeler and butowski in april, but in a statement today said, "the white house had nothing to do with the story." current press secretary sarah huckabee sanders was also asked about it today. >> the president had no knowledge of the story, and it's completely untrue that he or the white house had involvement in the story. >> reporter: in a statement, fox news said th