Seth Rich’s family suffered an incredible tragedy when their son died two years ago. What came next only added to their heartache.

Seth was shot to death about a block from where he lived in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, DC, on July 10, 2016. Police never found the killer. His parents, Joel and Mary Rich, have been besieged since his death by conspiracy theorists, alt-rightists, and Trump supporters — some representing the very heights of right-wing media — who were convinced that Seth’s murder was somehow orchestrated by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party in a byzantine scheme involving WikiLeaks and the Russia investigation.

Seth Rich’s brother, Aaron, has filed a lawsuit against several conservative outlets, including the Washington Times, for spreading “vicious lies” about Aaron’s involvement in his brother’s death. And Seth Rich’s parents are suing two Fox News contributors and the network itself for intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent supervision.

They’re demanding the case be heard by a jury. In a statement to Vox, Fox News said, “We can’t comment on this pending litigation.”

The lawsuit will be a test of whether you can sue a major news outlet for spreading conspiracy theories. But even more so, Seth Rich’s family is trying to finally get the space to mourn Seth’s passing.

The Riches aren’t just trying to stop the conspiracy theories about their family — they’re trying to prevent conspiracy theories from taking root in the first place, ever again. And by challenging the very process by which their son’s life became material for conspiracy theorists and bad-faith actors, they might be able to get some peace.

“On a daily basis, Joel and Mary feel that they are being attacked from all sides”

Joel and Mary Rich filed a lawsuit in New York state last week accusing Fox News, Fox reporter Malia Zimmerman, and Fox News pundit Ed Butowsky of manipulating them and working with a private investigator they had hired to find their son’s killer, going so far as to meet with then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer — all to weave together a story of how Seth Rich leaked DNC emails to Julian Assange at WikiLeaks, and was murdered for it.

The lawsuit is demanding a jury trial, charging that by lying to the Riches and publishing a fake story about their son, the defendants — which include Fox News and reporters working for Fox News — intentionally inflicted emotional distress on Joel and Mary Rich.

Their lawsuit is detailed — and shows not just how much the Seth Rich conspiracy theories deeply wounded the grieving couple, but also how Fox News-affiliated figures targeted the Rich family for their own professional and personal gain.

“On a daily basis,” the lawsuit alleges, “Joel and Mary feel that they are being attacked from all sides,” with both parents struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and social anxiety as a result of the intense harassment and scrutiny they’ve suffered.

The lawyers I spoke to told me that emotional distress claims are incredibly difficult to prove in court, particularly in New York state. But the Riches’ story isn’t just about conspiracy theorists — it’s about a conspiracy of Fox News contributors who concocted a lie while purporting to be trying to find Seth’s killer.

The lawsuit alleges a conspiracy to create “fake news”

Twelve days after Seth Rich’s murder, WikiLeaks published more than 44,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee, adding to a political firestorm that some say divided Democrats and helped swing the election to Donald Trump. While US intelligence found that the emails had been obtained through computer hacking (most likely by Russian intelligence), conspiracy theorists — and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange himself — pointed the finger at Seth.

The theory went like this: It alleged that Seth, who worked at the DNC as the director of voter expansion data, was a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential candidacy and that he released the emails once Sanders lost the nomination, and was murdered for doing so.

The Rich family tried to push back on this conspiracy theory at the time, saying that those “attempting to politicize this horrible tragedy” were “causing more harm than good” and asking for space to mourn.

That’s when, according to the lawsuit, Fox News political commentator Ed Butowsky got involved. Using connections from the Riches’ Jewish community (in one email, the subject line read in part, “We met through Jeremy from your temple”), Butowsky got in touch with Joel and Mary, who told him that there was no way Seth had given any DNC emails to WikiLeaks.

In a statement to Vox, Fox News said Butowsky was never an FNC contributor.

Around that same time, Malia Zimmerman, a Fox News investigative reporter (with a controversial past, including a personal relationship with a Republican senator she reported on favorably and a story about the Pulse nightclub shooting that implicated an innocent man) contacted the Riches, saying that she wanted to get any information directly from Joel Rich or members of law enforcement “to ensure its accuracy.”

Despite Butowsky’s repeated questions about payments from WikiLeaks (which didn’t exist), Joel and Mary repeatedly told both Zimmerman and Butowsky that the conspiracy theories about their son were “baseless,” and provided Zimmerman with information about Seth’s life for stories she said she was writing.

In February 2017, Zimmerman and Butowsky met with a retired DC detective, Rod Wheeler, also a Fox News contributor. His job: to “prove” that Seth Rich had given the DNC emails to WikiLeaks, information they wanted to use in stories to be published by Fox News — which Seth’s parents didn’t know when Butowsky contacted them and said that he would pay Wheeler to work on their behalf to find Seth’s killer. According to Wheeler, Butowsky even told him that when speaking with the Riches, he should “make sure to play down Fox News, don’t mention that you know [Zimmerman].”

For months, the lawsuit against Fox News, Butowsky and Zimmerman alleges, Butowsky lied to Joel and Mary Rich, telling them that he would help stop the conspiracy theories already swirling about their son and saying in phone calls, “I know what you’ve been through.” Butowsky was so trusted by the Rich family that Joel even invited Butowsky to a fundraising concert for a Jewish summer camp scholarship fund established by the Riches to celebrate their son’s memory.

But Butowsky, Zimmerman, and Wheeler were instead planning a story that would blame Seth Rich’s murder on the WikiLeaks DNC emails. Wheeler and Butowsky even met with then-White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer to keep the White House in the loop on the sham story, which supporters of President Trump believed would help end the Russia investigation and protect Trump. (Spicer has since admitted to the meeting.) And the Riches had no idea — until May 15, 2017.

That’s when they got a call from Zimmerman, asking them to comment on the “fact” that Zimmerman had “been in communication with a federal agent who had reviewed an FBI report completed last July that showed Seth had been in communication with [WikiLeaks] and ... had in fact transferred emails from the DNC to Wikileaks.” A day later, following publication by the DC Fox affiliate, Fox News published an article written by Zimmerman, “Slain DNC Staffer Had Contact with WikiLeaks, Say Multiple Sources.” A second article that same day would say that Wheeler was the source of the claims.

Wheeler stated later that he received text messages that day from Butowsky telling him what to say in media interviews:

“If you can, try to highlight this puts the Russian hacking story to rest”

“We need to emphasize the FBI has a report that has been suppressed that shows that Seth rich [sic] did this...”

But none of this was true. As would be revealed just a few days later, Wheeler had never said that there was any emailing between Seth Rich and WikiLeaks, and everything he’d heard had been from Butowsky and Zimmerman. “I’ve never, ever seen Seth Rich’s computer, nor have I talked with the federal investigator.” And there was no FBI investigation, either — the FBI had never even seen Seth’s laptop.

In short, Butowsky and Zimmerman had worked with Rod Wheeler, told him the FBI had information about Seth Rich’s alleged connection with WikiLeaks, and then set him loose — with absolutely no proof. In fact, when Joel Rich demanded a retraction, Zimmerman told him (according to Wheeler, under direction from Fox producers) that the details about their son’s (completely false) WikiLeaks ties had come from Wheeler — whom Butowsky and Zimmerman had been working with all along.

“That nightmare is what our family goes through every day”

But none of this stopped Fox News personalities from sharing the fake story, seemingly to disprove the Russian hacking allegations — and protect Trump.

Congress, investigate Seth Rich Murder! @JulianAssange made comments u need to listen to! If Seth was wiki source, no Trump/Russia collusion https://t.co/QPHZwypU34 — Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) May 22, 2017

Sue for what?? He was Murdered. Watch @JulianAssange interview. Maybe @realDonaldTrump should sue all u snowflakes for lying about him. Lol https://t.co/XDqhsRCs6k — Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) May 22, 2017

Only on May 23 did Fox News finally retract the story. “The article was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting. Upon appropriate review, the article was found not to meet those standards and has since been removed.” And even then, Fox News shows continued to promote the conspiracy theory that Seth Rich had been murdered because he’d given DNC emails to WikiLeaks.

According to the lawsuit, Butowsky has continued to call the Riches and leave harassing voicemails accusing them of lying about him, while claiming on Twitter and in conservative media outlets that the Riches “knew” their son had sent emails to WikiLeaks and received payment for it. As recently as this month, far-right media articles are still being shared detailing how Joel Rich told Butowsky that he was aware Seth had leaked the emails — all of which is false.

Insider Ed Butowsky: Seth Rich’s Father Confirmed His Son Was the Wikileaks Leaker https://t.co/nYXv1D9jxE — Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) March 2, 2018

In a Washington Post op-ed published May 23, 2017, Joel and Mary Rich wrote about their ordeal. “Imagine that every single day, with every phone call, you hope it’s the police, calling to tell you that there has been a break in the case. Imagine that instead, every call that comes in is a reporter asking what you think of a series of lies or conspiracies about the death. That nightmare is what our family goes through every day.”

Can this lawsuit actually go anywhere?

But the charges of intent to cause emotional distress might prove legally challenging for the Riches to prove in court.

Even in cases where the material shared was deeply, painfully offensive to an individual, their family or to thousands of Americans, the Supreme Court has generally ruled that the First Amendment takes priority over personal comfort. The Westboro Baptist Church has the right to display offensive signs outside of military funerals, and Hustler magazine had the right to publish a parody ad stating that 1980s evangelical leader Jerry Falwell lost his virginity to his mother.

Eric Turkewitz, a New York trial attorney, told me, “In New York, it is very difficult to win an award for emotional distress without a physical injury, [and] for intentional infliction of emotional distress, it is even harder. For that, you have to show ‘extreme and outrageous’ conduct.”

In addition, a lawsuit against Fox News might be even more difficult, Turkewitz said. “[The plaintiffs] run into the privilege that is afforded the media under the First Amendment for news gathering. If something is protected under the First Amendment, it doesn’t matter if it caused emotional distress. Plenty of folks are deeply unhappy (and perhaps permanently, emotionally scarred) as a result of news coverage.”

Jane Kirtley, a professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota, agreed. In an email, she told me that in general, the law is on the side of media companies if what is being reported is a matter of public concern.

“My guess is that [Fox News will] say they were reporting on a legitimate matter of public interest and concern,” Kirtley said. “They might also claim that they were simply reporting allegations, not adopting the assertions as truthful statements of fact. Or that people like [Sean] Hannity were just expressing opinions. Pure opinion is absolutely protected by the First Amendment, but it needs to be based on accurate facts.”

But the damage has already been done

For the Riches, their lawsuit is simply an attempt to end the stream of accusations against their son, the stress of which has caused both Joel and Mary to struggle with symptoms of PTSD, obsessive compulsive disorder, and social anxiety as they constantly try and battle back against conspiracy theorists accusing their son of being the DNC’s hacker.

Mary has been unable to work since the Fox News article was first released; according to the lawsuit, a preexisting neurological condition “became aggravated so much” by the stress and pain caused by the article that she couldn’t accept a new job, putting the Rich family under “considerable financial strain.”

There’s a good chance the Riches won’t win their case in court. Historically, American law places higher value on a free press than a family’s pain — a price that is incredibly high for the Rich family.

But by challenging how the story of their son’s murder was manipulated by people who wormed their way into their inner circle — even gaining access to their religious community — the Riches could shine a light on the darkest underbelly of the conservative media apparatus.

Updated to add statement from Fox News.