President Donald Trump is denying allegations that he knowingly and actively tried to spread false news about the murder of DNC employee Seth Rich.

Rod Wheeler filed a complaint on Tuesday in the Southern District of New York against Fox News, Malia Zimmerman and Ed Butowsky claiming that they worked together to create a false narrative surrounding the death of Rich.

Also contributing to the creation of that fake news story was President Trump according to court documents, which claim that the Commander-in-Chief wanted the story to include multiple fake quotes which were attributed to Wheeler.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders fired back at that allegation on Tuesday afternoon at the daily press briefing, forcefully telling members of the media: 'He had no knowledge of this story and it's completely untrue that there was White House involvement in this story.'

She then added: 'Beyond that, this is ongoing litigation and I'd refer you to the actual parties involved who aren't the White House.'

Butowsky is calling the lawsuit 'bulls***' while Fox News disputed the claims being made by Wheeler.

Fake news: Rod Wheeler filed a complaint on Tuesday in the Southern District of New York against Fox News, Malia Zimmerman and Ed Butowsky for allegedly releasing false information about the death of Seth Rich (above)

Fighting back: Sarah Huckabee Sanders (above) said on Tuesday that President Trump had no knowledge of the story prior to its release

Sanders was also pointedly asked during the briefing if it upset her to know that Sean Spicer had admitted to meeting with the campaign donor and private investigator who helped the writer on the story, causing her to briefly lose her cool.

He met with a member of the media, I don't find that to be a strange thing. It doesn't bother me that the Press Secretary would take a meeting with a member of the media about a story. None of that was disclosed, they had conversation about a story and that was the end of it. -Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Sean Spicer

She then defended Spicer's decision to meet with Wheeler, who she described as a member of the media, by saying Spicer had no idea what the two would be discussing that day.

'He met with a member of the media, I don't find that to be a strange thing,' said a defensive Sanders.

'It doesn't bother me that the Press Secretary would take a meeting with a member of the media about a story. None of that was disclosed, they had conversation about a story and that was the end of it.'

Sanders response however skipped over the fact that neither of those men were actually writing the story.

It is also the second time in the past few weeks that a member of the administration has claimed to have taken a meeting with no idea what the discussion would eb about.

Jared Kushner used a similar line when asked about his meeting with a shadowy Russian lawyer back in 2016.

The filing leads off with a text message from Butowsky, a Texas wealth manager and Trump supporter, to Wheeler, in which he discusses the President's eagerness to see the story published.

Wheeler is a former Washington DC homicide detective who investigated Rich;'s murder and frequently appeared as a guest on Fox News to discuss the case.

If these allegations are true, it is beyond vile that the White House — and possibly even Trump himself — would use the murder of a young man to distract the public's attention from their chaotic administration and Trump's ties to Russia. -DNC statement on Wheeler's lawsuit

'Not to add any more pressure but the president just read the article. He wants the article out immediately. It's now all up to you. But don't feel the pressure,' Butowsky texted Wheeler according to the filing.

'The motivation behind the article: establish that Seth Rich provided WikiLeaks with the DNC emails to shift the blame from Russia and help put to bed speculation that President Trump colluded with Russia in an attempt to influence the outcome of the Presidential election,' states the lawsuit.

DNC spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa released a statement on Tuesday as well about that allegation, lashing out at the Trump administration.

'If these allegations are true, it is beyond vile that the White House — and possibly even Trump himself — would use the murder of a young man to distract the public's attention from their chaotic administration and Trump's ties to Russia,' said Hinojosa on behalf of the DNC.

'The Rich family has begged those responsible for these conspiracies to stop. And yet, Trump's allies have ignored their pain and their pleas, degrading the office of the president by spreading repulsive lies.

'This should outrage any decent human being. There is no excuse for the suffering that Trump's associates and their conspirators at FOX have caused the Rich family and those closest to him. Both parties should denounce these sick and twisted tactics.'

Big fan: A text from Butowsky to Wheeler (above) included in the filing shows that President Trump saw the story before it was published and wanted it out 'immediately'

Shocking claims: Butowsky and Zimmerman worked together to attribute to false quotes to Wheeler (above) in the story because 'that is the way the President wanted the article'

'The accusation that FoxNews.com published Malia Zimmerman's story to help detract from coverage of the Russia collusion issue is completely erroneous,' said Jay Wallace,' the president of the network.

'The retraction of this story is still being investigated internally and we have no evidence that Rod Wheeler was misquoted by Zimmerman.

'Additionally, Fox News vehemently denies the race discrimination claims in the lawsuit — the dispute between Zimmerman and Rod Wheeler has nothing to do with race.'

A Fox News insider meanwhile dismissed the lawsuit, telling DailyMail.com that this was just another attempt by Wheeler's law firm, Wigdor LLP, to get attention even though the case will never hold up in court.

The family of Seth Rich also released a statement on Tuesday, saying: 'While we can't speak to the evidence that you now have, we are hopeful this brings to an end what has been the most emotionally difficult time in our lives, and an end to conspiracy theories surrounding our beloved Seth.'

The lawsuit, in which Wheeler requests a jury trial, also clams that just before Butowsky texted Wheeler he left the former detective a voice message.

'A couple minutes ago I got a note that we have the full, uh, attention of the White House, on this. And, tomorrow, let's close this deal, whatever we've got to do. But you can feel free to say that the White House is onto this now,' says Butowsky in that message according to the filing.

That is when Zimmerman made the decision to add in two quotes which she attributed to Wheeler despite his claim that he never made the comments according to court documents.

TIMELINE OF EVENTS February 27: Ed Butowsky reaches out to Rod Wheeler and hires him to investigate the July 2016 murder of Seth Rich. February 28: Wheeler meets with Butowsky and is introduced to Malia Zimmerman, the Fox News reporter. He then meets the Rich family but claims he is told by Butowsky to not mention Zimmerman or Fox News. March 14: Wheeler is formally retained by the Rich family to investigate the murder of their son Seth. April 18: Butowsky texts Wheeler that he would like the investigator to accompany him to a meeting with Sean Spicer. April 19: While meeting with Sarah Flores, the Director of Public Affairs for he DOJ, Wheeler learns that Butwosky has been in contact with her about Seth's murder. April 20: Wheeler meets with Spicer and provides him with a summary of his findings and notes from the murder investigation. April 21: Wheeler posts a photo of himself in the White House briefing room wearing a pass given only to those who have appointments inside the building. April 25: Wheeler meets with the lead detective on the murder case from the DC police, Detective Della-Camera. He says that it appears that the shooting was a robbery gone bad. May 11: Zimmerman sends Wheeler a draft of her story without the two falsely attributed quotes. May 14: Butowsky texts Wheeler that President Trump 'wants the article out immediately' May 15: Zimmerman asks Wheeler for additional quotes to add to the story. May 16: The story is published online and the Rich family immediately speaks out against Wheeler. May 16: Zimmerman sends an email in which she responds to the family of the victim by saying: 'As you know, much of our information came from a private investigator, Rod Wheeler, who we understand was working on behalf of you' May 16: Sean Spicer denies having any prior knowledge of the story at the White House Press Briefing. May 23: Fox News retracts the story. August 31: Spicer admits to meeting with Butowsky as a favor to President Trump. June 26: Wheeler informs defendants he is seeking legal counsel. June 26: Butowsky tweets: ''Fox News story was pulled b/c Rod Wheeler said [he] didn't say a quote . . . How much did DNC pay him?' August 1: Spicer admits to meeting with Butowsky and Wheeler in April. Advertisement

'My investigation up to this point shows there was some degree of email exchange between Seth Rich and Wikileaks,' reads one of those quotes.

The second quote that Wheeler said was falsely attributed to him reads: 'My investigation shows someone within the DC government, Democratic National Committee or Clinton team is blocking the murder investigation from going forward. That is unfortunate. Seth Rich's murder is unsolved as a result of that.'

Wheeler said that as a result of those quotes, he has 'has suffered irreparable damage to his reputation and his career will likely never recover' and lost all credibility with the public.

'According to Butowsky, the statements were falsely attributed to Mr. Wheeler because that is the way the President wanted the article,' reads the lawsuit.

'Zimmerman, Butowsky and Fox had created fake news to advance President Trump's agenda.'

Wheeler states in the lawsuit that he was hired by Butowksy and Zimmerman, an investigative journalist with Fox News, to look into the murder back in February.

The private investigator claims that Zimmerman and Butowsky had already carved out the narrative of the story they hoped to write, which would reveal that Rich handed over the DNC emails to Wikileaks and that a member of the DNC murdered him in retaliation.

'Butowsky and Zimmerman hoped that, if Mr. Wheeler could confirm that Seth Rich leaked the DNC emails to WikiLeaks, that would debunk reports the Russians were responsible for the DNC hacks,' claims the complaint.

'In turn, Butowsky and Zimmerman hoped that, if Mr. Wheeler could shift the blame for the DNC hacks from the Russians to Seth Rich, this would undermine reports of collusion between Russia and the Trump Administration.'

Wheeler says he was first contacted by Butowsky via text on February 23, with the money man paying him a number of compliments before writing: Of all the people you have met in your line of work you have put me right next to those you view as the most confidential. I am extremely discreet. Is there a time I can give you a call this morning?'

The men then spoke for 20 minutes, with Butowsky saying that the Rich family wanted to hire an investigator into the case, and Wheeler appositely accepting that position.

Wheeler then met Zimmerman alter that months according to the lawsuit, but was cautioned by Butowsky to not let the Rich family know he was speaking to the journalist.

At the same time that he was looking into these claims he was also keeping in close contact with members of President Trump's staff, including Sean Spicer, Stephen Bannon and Director of Public Affairs at the Department of Justice, Sarah Flores.

Butwosky texted Wheeler in April and said: 'Are you in Washington DC area on Thursday afternoon? I am meeting Sean Spicer and want you with me.'

The next day Butowsky texted again, asking: 'Do you have summary done yet?[ ] Just bulletpointed. Just want to make sure we get point to Sean easily.'

Two days later the men met with Spicer and Wheeler handed over some of his notes claims the complaint.

Once the article was published, Wheeler claims that Butowsky sent him a flurry of texts informing him how best to frame the story when appearing on-air to discuss the matter.

'If you can, try to highlight this puts the Russian hacking story to rest,' reads one text.

'Just reflecting: we need to emphasize the FBI has a report that has been suppressed that shows that Seth rich did this. With Comey recently being fired this will gain a lot of attention and it's true,' said another text.

Zimmerman published the story less than 24 hours after Butowsky's text message in which he voiced President Trump's eagerness to see the story put online claims that lawsuit.

One day later however, Spicer denied having any knowledge of the story during the White House Daily Briefing when asked what President trump's reaction was to the report that Rich had been in communication with Wikileaks.

'Generally, I don't get updates on former DNC staffers. I'm not aware of that,' said Spicer.

He told a much different story after the lawsuit was filed, admitting that he had in fact met with Butowsjky and Wheeler back in April.

'Ed's been a longtime supporter of the president and asked to meet to catch up,' Spicer told NPR.

'I didn't know who Rod Wheeler was. Once we got into my office, [Butowsky] said, 'I'm sure you recognize Rod Wheeler from Fox News.'

Response: Butowsky (above with Stece Doocy) is calling the lawsuit 'bulls***' while Fox News disputed the claims being made by Wheeler

It was also in April that Wheeler met with Detective Della-Camera of the DC police department, with the complatint stating that Butowsky texted him the night before the meeting to say: 'Della camera is either helping us or we will go after him as being part of the coverup.'

Detective Della-Camera said during that meeting 'he had nothing to say or to show that the shooting was related to emails or anything other than a street robbery.'

The story was published on May 16, six days after James Comey was fired by President Trump, and Wheeler offered up to give interviews by Butowsky.

'One of the big conclusions we need to draw from this is that the Russians did not hack our computer systems and emails and there was no collusion like trump with the Russianss,' wrote Butowsky in a message to on-air talent including Steve Doocy, Gavin Hadden, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade.

The Rich family quickly spoke out against the story, at which point Zimmerman sent them an email defending the article, stating at one point: 'As you know, much of our information came from a private investigator, Rod Wheeler, who we understand was working on behalf of you.'

That in turn led to Rich's father Joel very publicly attacking Wheeler.

'We are a family who is committed to facts, not fake evidence that surfaces every few months to fill the void and distract law enforcement and the general public from finding Seth's murderers,' said Joel Rich in a statement.

'The services of the private investigator who spoke to press was offered to the Rich family and paid for by a third party and contractually was barred from speaking to the press or anyone outside of law enforcement or the family unless explicitly authorized by the family.'

The Rich family then sent a cease and desist letter to Wheeler.

Wheeler eventually confronted Zimmerman about the quotes, who according to the complaint responded by admitting to adding to false statements from the private investigator.

Zimmerman admitted to making up the two quotes, with the court filing stating that she told Wheeler: 'Umm, well not not not . . . Not the part about the emails. Not the part about, I mean about the connection to WikiLeaks, but the rest of the quotes in the story did. A lot of the quotes in the story did.'

Butowsky allegedly added in that same conversation: '[O]ne day you're going to win an award for having said those things you didn't say.'

ROGER AILES FBI FILES On Tuesday, Gizmodo filed a lawsuit after the FBI failed to honor their request to look at the FBI files of Roger Ailes within 20 days. They submitted paperwork to get those files on the day of Ailes' death citing the Freedom of Information Act. Advertisement

Fox News retracted the story on May 23, stating:'The May 16 story 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.'

That statement did not say anything about the quotes which were falsely attributed to Wheeler, and so he requested and was granted a meeting with Dianne Brandi, Fox News's Executive Vice President, Legal and Business Affairs, and Jay Wallace, Fox News's Executive Vice President of News and Editorial.

Wheeler told the two that Zimmerman had made up the quotes about him in the article according to the court filing, and still nothing was hanged and no addition statement was released by Fox News.

Fox and friends:Writer Malia Zimmerman poses with Sean Hannity (above in June), who discussed the aspects of her story multiple times on the air

In his lawsuit, Wheeler states that he was mistreated by Fox News because his black, both before and after the May 16 story was published on heir website.

'Throughout his career with Fox, Mr. Wheeler's white colleagues with comparable or inferior skills, expertise and experience have received more air time, made more appearances and been hired into full time positions,' reads the complaint.

'As a result, these white colleagues make more money, receive more notoriety and, in many cases, receive valuable benefits.'

The lawsuit lists Bo Dietel, Mark Furman, Steve Rogers, Pat Bronson and Griff Jenkin as examples of these 'white colleagues.'

Butowsky meanwhile took to Twitter to slam Wheeler back in June, writing: 'Fox News story was pulled b/c Rod Wheeler said [he] didn't say a quote . . . How much did DNC pay him?'

He followed that up with another post, stating: 'This shows Rod Wheeler has a major battle with the truth. Everyone needs to hear this. He says the precise words he swears he didn't say ???'

Douglas Wigdor, who is representing Wheeler, said in a statement on Tuesday: 'According to the complaint, at the same time that 21st Century Fox's General Counsel, Gerson Zweifach, was meeting with the UK regulators in an attempt to convince them that Fox had in place procedures to ensure compliance with broadcasting standards to purchase Sky, Fox News was working with the Trump administration to disseminate fake news in order to distract the public from Russia's alleged attempts to influence our Country's presidential election.'

Rich, 27, was gunned down in the affluent Bloomingdale neighborhood of DC in the early hours of July 10 while he was on the phone to his girlfriend after a night out at Lou's City Bar.

Rich worked as a data analyst at the DNC and had built a voter turnout database in the months before his death.

But despite speculation from the public, fueled by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's own comments, Rich's father, Joel, insists that his son did not provide emails to WikiLeaks prior to the 2016 presidential election.

Joel believes that his son's death was robbery gone wrong, while a police report seen by DailyMail.com states the circumstances surrounding Rich's homicide are 'unknown'.

Security footage from a nearby store shows two men following Rich from a crosswalk in the moments before he was shot.

The camera only captured images of the assailants' legs and of Rich when he fell to the ground after being shot.

Following Rich's death, Assange offered a $20,000 reward leading to an arrest of the killers. Republican lobbyist Jack Burkman offered an additional $100,000 while the DC Police also offer $25,000.

Police have said there had been numerous robberies in the area in the lead up to Rich's murder and suspect he may have engaged in a fight with his attackers.