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New Seth Rich Lawsuits Spur More Controversy

By George Khoury, Esq. on March 28, 2018 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

It's plain to see why Seth Rich's family was bothered by the media's coverage of Seth's unsolved murder. Not only have his parents filed a lawsuit against various media companies and personalities, but so has his brother, Aaron Rich.

Sadly, without evidence or support, Rich's murder was used as a political prop by various media outlets. It was claimed that Seth was murdered as a result of leaking the DNC's emails to WikiLeaks. Basically, instead of Russian hackers, journalists and news personalities were putting the hacked emails on Seth and Aaron's shoulders, even after the alleged evidence was retracted by Fox News for failing to be subjected to a "high degree of editorial scrutiny."

Death and Libel

Unfortunately for the Rich family, Seth's libel claims do not survive his death. As such, his parents have essentially filed kitchen sink IIED claims. The gist of their claims involve their own emotional distress caused by the blatantly false and irresponsible reporting that desecrated their son's memory and reputation. While IIED claims filed by public figures against the media can be rather tenuous, this doesn't seem to be one of those cases as no one in the Rich family is a public figure. Getting murdered under mysterious circumstances doesn't automatically make a person's family newsworthy.

For Aaron, his case is more direct as some sources, including the Washington Times, basically fingered him and his brother as co-conspirators in leaking the DNC emails. The Washington Times actually published the following statement without support, attribution, or any evidence:

"Seth Rich and his brother, Aaron Rich, downloaded the DNC emails and [were] paid by Wikileaks for that information."

Perhaps even more shocking that such a statement would even be published online without attribution, or linking to the source, the statement and piece were not taken down or even edited after the publisher was informed of the falsity.

Notably, one of the defendants in Aaron's case, Matt Couch, a "fringe internet activist," made a public statement about being hot to use the discovery process to prove that Aaron was involved in the alleged conspiracy. Given the personalities involved, you can probably expect a whole lot more controversy before these cases are through.

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