Parents of Seth Rich speak out on Fox News lawsuit: 'We lost his soul'

AOL.com Editors
Updated

The parents of slain Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich filed a lawsuit against Fox News this week over a retracted story about their son, and spoke to Good Morning America on Thursday morning about that action.

27-year-old was shot and killed in Washington D.C. months before the 2016 election, and Joel and Mary Rich say the FOX News network "took a rumor and ran with it" when covering their son's death as tied to the release of thousands of DNC emails to WikiLeaks.

"I want the people who started the lies, who are responsible for the lies, held accountable," Mary Rich told ABC News. "This has got to stop."

The family's lawsuit directly names investigative reporter Malia Zimmerman and network regular Ed Butowsky, saying they "intentionally exploited" the tragedy of Rich's death.

"We lost his body the first time, and the second time we lost his soul," Mary Rich said during the GMA segment. "They took more from us with the lies."

Fox News had previously released the following statement in May of 2017 on the Seth Rich story:

"On May 16, a story was posted on the Fox News website on the investigation into the 2016 murder of DNC Staffer Seth Rich. The article was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting," the network said in a statement released Tuesday. "Upon appropriate review, the article was found not to meet those standards and has since been removed. We will continue to investigate this story and will provide updates as warranted."

"No parent should ever have to live through what we have been forced to endure," Joel and Mary Rich said in a statement following the suit's filing in the Southern District of New York. "The pain and anguish that comes from seeing your murdered son's life and legacy treated as a mere political football is beyond comprehension."

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