The suit, filed at the US federal court house in Manhattan today, is brought by Rod Wheeler, a Fox News contributor and retired police detective, against the television network, one of its journalists and another of its contributors.
It alleges a May 16 article sought to promote a claim that a murdered Democratic National Committee staffer was the source of leaked DNC emails during last year's election campaign, and not Russian hackers as the US intelligence community said.
It quoted one of the defendants -- wealthy Trump supporter Ed Butowsky -- as claiming that the US president reviewed the article "prior to its publication and sought to get the article published 'immediately.'"
The article included "fabricated" quotes from Wheeler, the suit alleges. When Wheeler called to complain, he was told by Butowsky that the quotes were included "because that is the way the president wanted the article."
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Fox retracted the article on May 23, but the lawsuit accuses the channel of not clearing Wheeler's name and never admitting that he had been misquoted.
Fox News on Tuesday said the accusation that it published the story "to help detract from coverage of the Russia collusion issue is completely erroneous."
"The retraction of this story is still being investigated internally and we have no evidence that Rod Wheeler was misquoted," said president of news, Jay Wallace.
The defamation lawsuit alleges that Wheeler "lost all credibility in the eyes of the public" and "suffered irreparable damage to his reputation and his career.
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