TWO LAWSUITS NOW CLAIM DAMAGES FROM MEDIA REPORTS
by Sharon Rondeau
(Mar. 27, 2018) — In a new Periscope report just after noontime on Tuesday, America First Media Group founder Matt Couch responded to reports of articles at CNN and The Hill that he was named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday by Aaron Rich, the brother of slain DNC Data Director Seth Rich.
In the short broadcast, Couch said he had not yet been “served” with the lawsuit but that the organization’s attorneys, Ty Clevenger and Jared Beck, would attend to it. In fact, Couch ended the live address precipitously when Clevenger reportedly called him.
Couch said that he is doing nothing wrong by investigating Rich’s murder, which has remained unsolved for nearly two years.
CNN’s article referred to Couch as “a fringe internet activist” and said that the lawsuit claims that Couch, businessman Ed Butowsky, and The Washington Times acted “with reckless disregard for the truth.”
Butowsky is also a defendant in a separate case brought by Seth Rich’s parents, Joel and Mary Rich, against Fox News on March 14.
As for The Times, Rich’s lawsuit, according to CNN, cited an editorial written by former Pacific Fleet Commander-in-Chief Adm. James “Ace” Lyons which contended that “it is well known in the intelligence circles that Seth Rich and his brother, Aaron Rich, downloaded the DNC emails and was paid by Wikileaks for that information.”
Lyons was referring to a trove of emails taken from the DNC servers and in some way transferred to the open-government organization Wikileaks, which began publishing them in batches just prior to the commencement of the Democratic National Convention in July 2016.
Seth Rich was killed on the morning of July 10, 2016 a short distance from his Washington, DC townhouse.
The US intelligence community’s position has been that the DNC servers were “hacked” by operatives of the Russian government, although in recent updates, Couch has said that that narrative is false and that there are many who do not wish the truth to be known.
Former FBI Director James Comey has testified to Congress that the agency never examined the DNC servers.
In a Periscope broadcast on Monday night given after Couch and his associates arrived at Washington to continue their probe into Rich’s untimely death, Couch acknowledged that their work holds considerable risk and that he has received a number of threats.
In a FOIA lawsuit against the NSA, DOJ and FBI, Attorney Ty Clevenger, who Couch said represents America First Media Group, stated that he believes Joel and Mary Rich’s lawsuit against Fox News, Butowsky, and the reporter who wrote an article last May making certain claims as to their son’s actions prior to his death is “a serious tactical error.”
“All of the defendants now have the legal right to subpoena documents and witnesses, and you can be sure they will use that power aggressively,” Clevenger wrote on his blog on March 14.
Couch has observed that no “mainstream” media outlet has investigated Rich’s murder. Last August, CNN termed the FNC article as “fatally flawed” but offered no investigative evidence of its own to refute it.
During the latest broadcast, Couch said that there would likely be “a countersuit” against Aaron Rich. Since learning of it, Couch as tweeted, “Never in my life have I seen a family try to cover up the murder of their son.. it’s unreal” and “So Will the family sue the Mainstream Media when they attach your son and brother to Russia? You should realize they will do that and we’re the only ones keeping that from happening.”