Parents of Seth Rich reach undisclosed settlement with Fox News

The parents of slain Democratic National Committee (DNC) staffer Seth Rich have settled a lawsuit with Fox News, which they sued in 2018 for promoting conspiracy theories about their son’s death.

“The settlement with Fox News closes another chapter in our efforts to mourn the murder of our beloved Seth, whom we miss every single day,” Joel and Mary Rich said in a statement Tuesday.

“It allows us to move on from the litigation we initiated in response to Fox News’ May 2017 article and televised statements concerning Seth’s murder,” they added. “We are pleased with the settlement of this matter and sincerely hope that the media will take genuine caution in the future.”

“We are pleased with the resolution of the claims and hope this enables Mr. and Mrs. Rich to find a small degree of peace and solace moving forward,” a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement.

Rich was shot and killed in 2016 in Washington, D.C., in what police have said was a botched robbery. Several Fox News contributors, as well as host Sean Hannity, later spread unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that Rich, rather than Russian hackers, had provided internal DNC emails to Wikileaks and that he was assassinated in retaliation.

Fox retracted a May 2017 story attributing the leak to Rich, but Hannity and other contributors continued promoting the conspiracy theory after the retraction.

The Riches sued Fox News for emotional distress in 2018, also accusing the network of reaching out to them under false pretenses for evidence supporting the claim that he leaked the emails. A federal judge dismissed the complaint later that year but the decision was overturned on appeal last September.

Last month, in a separate lawsuit, a judge ruled Twitter must reveal the identity of a user alleged to have originated the conspiracy theory.

A representative for the Rich family declined to offer further details on the settlement.