Pro-Trump Conspiracy Peddler Jerome Corsi Apologizes to Seth Rich's Family

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

WASHINGTON – The family of Seth Rich, the Democratic National Committee staffer whose unsolved murder in 2016 spawned a wave of conspiracy theories, has notched another legal victory against the proponents of baseless theories about Rich.

On Monday, pro-Trump conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi retracted a nearly year-old column published on the website Infowars, run by another notorious conspiracy peddler, Alex Jones, that promoted the unfounded claim that Rich and his brother participated in the hack of the DNC and leaked documents to WikiLeaks. In addition to the retraction, Corsi apologized to the Rich family.

Corsi’s March 5th, 2018, story was an attempt to defend Roger Stone, the now-indicted former Trump adviser, against allegations that he had advance knowledge of WikiLeaks’ plans to release thousands of emails stolen from the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta in the weeks before the 2016 presidential election. Last week, Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal lawyer, stoked the controversy around Stone’s ties to WikiLeaks after Cohen testified that Stone told Trump in the summer of 2016 that he had spoken to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange about an upcoming dump of thousands of hacked emails. (Stone and Wikileaks denied Cohen’s claim.)

In his column, Corsi promoted a theory that the DNC hack — a crime for which Special Counsel Robert Mueller later indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers — was an “inside job” by Rich. Corsi cited a Washington Times op-ed that said Seth Rich and his older brother, Aaron, had carried out the DNC hack, quoting one passage directly from the op-ed, which was written by a retired Navy admiral: “Interestingly, 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.”

In a statement posted Monday morning on corsination.com and on Twitter, Corsi now says his Infowars column was “not based upon any independent factual knowledge regarding Seth or Aaron Rich.” He says he relied “primarily” on the Washington Times op-ed, which was retracted last September after Aaron Rich sued the newspaper for defamation. Corsi’s apology and retraction came after a series of negotiations between lawyers for Corsi and Aaron Rich as the one-year statute of limitations for a potential defamation lawsuit approached, a source familiar with the talks tells Rolling Stone.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/pro-trump-conspiracy-peddler-jerome-corsi-apologizes-to-seth-richs-family-802581/

Sounds like Corsi fears legal action.

[UTUSN]

1. Apologies are worthless. For perpetrators, they are like "permission" to do it again.

[spanone]

2. apologizes when caught..corsi was also behind the swiftboating of John Kerry.

He was co-author of 'Unfit for Command' ....a smear of John Kerry

[DURHAM D]

3. So what happened to the retired Navy admiral?

He is a lying liar.

[asiliveandbreathe]

10. He died...see my comment #8 on this thread - I had the same question...n/t

[Scurrilous]

4. K&R

[calimary]

5. He should. He deserves LOTS of legal action.

I hope assholes like him are bankrupted by their legal “defenses.” Money and/or the lack thereof: the ONLY kinds of punishment these jerks even begin to understand, much less learn from.

[procon]

6. Seth Reich's family should pursue legal action

against every person who promoted that hoax. They all used that lie to buff their street creds amongst the diehard Republicans who subscribe to the gibberish of con men like Corsi and Jones.

These men profitted off the haters and intellectually challenged who glom onto every conspiracy theory that feeds their conformational biases. Just as they made money by demonizing an innocent murder victim, his family should be entitled to a similar sum in compensation for what they have suffered at the hands of these unprincipated charlatans.

[RockRaven]

7. Apologies do not count, socially speaking, when they are a response to litigation

Any thinking person will recognize that an apology rendered amidst litigation or the threat of the same is insincere, or highly likely to be so. Perhaps there is some legal utility to it, but the scorn/opprobrium that Corsi deserves as a result of this episode remains unchanged.

[asiliveandbreathe]

8. James Aloysius "Ace" Lyons Jr. (September 28, 1927 - December 12, 2018) -what a piece of work..

quoting one passage directly from the op-ed, which was written by a retired Navy admiral: “Interestingly, 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.”


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lyons_%28admiral%29

...snip...

James Aloysius "Ace" Lyons Jr. (September 28, 1927 – December 12, 2018) was an admiral in the United States Navy who served as Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet from 1985 to 1987 and who wrote a column about Seth Rich that was retracted by The Washington Times.

another snip from same wiki link..

On September 30, 2018, The Washington Times retracted a column by Lyons published March 1, 2018, online, and apologized to Aaron Rich, brother of Seth Rich, for the column as part of a lawsuit settlement. The Washington Times said the column contained statements about Aaron Rich that it believed to be false. The unsolved murder of Aaron Rich's brother, Seth, had become the basis for conspiracy theories on the far-right.[9] Lyons died on December 12, 2018 at the age of 91.

[blm]

9. There are some faux left sites that still push the Seth Rich lie. They just can't admit

that Assange was helping Russia and Trump. Some of them have such fragile egos.

[TrishaJ]

11. I'm waiting on Corsi's apology to

John Kerry for the despicable "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth"

What a scumbag!