DAVID WEBB (HOST): A lot of you have called about Seth Rich and what’s going on with that situation. Call it the circumstance and the fortune to have good friends who are good people in good places who want to do the right thing for people around the country. The headlines have been out there. If you simply look at the story, Mediaite, it’s on Twitter obviously, it’s all over the place. But the truth needs to be told about how this played out. I’m going to play this audio for you. This is Rod Wheeler first, talking about how this came to be and his involvement with the family. And then we’re going to bring you the gentleman who can explain it all.

(BEGIN AUDIO)

SEAN HANNITY: Uh, tell us who hired you.

ROD WHEELER: Well actually I was hired by the family, Joel and Mary Rich, they signed the contract. Now the financial benefit -- if there were any financial benefit, and by the way there wasn’t much -- that was actually paid for by a third party that I have had very little communication with at all, Sean.

(END AUDIO)

WEBB: All right, now I’ll just bring him on. So let’s bring my friend Ed Butowsky on to talk about this. Ed, how are you my friend?

ED BUTOWSKY: I’m doing great. Thanks for giving me an opportunity and your interest in this, because it’s really -- it’s the media at its worst I think.

WEBB: All right, so let -- you just heard Rod explain on Hannity his involvement -- Rod Wheeler, who we both know over at Fox. As a good Samaritan, you got involved in this. Expand on that.

BUTOWSKY: Sure. So, one day, and people always hear different things, one day, somebody came up to me -- just somebody I didn’t know very well, and said, “Hey, I heard something about this young guy Seth Rich and why he was murdered.” And the person just offered it up to me and I just found it very interesting, and I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Because here I was, a father of a 19-year-old and a 22-year-old, and I can only imagine what it would be like to have a child murdered. And it just killed me to hear about this. So as I looked into it more, I thought, you know what? I shouldn't know this. And I don’t even know if it was true or not, but I looked at some headline and I realized that the parents were not getting any answers. And I thought, well, somehow I should just tell the parents because I shouldn't know something. Because if it’s true, they should know, not me.

So, I actually went on [unintelligible], you’re going to find this funny, but I knew the family was Jewish, I’m Jewish. I went on Facebook and I said, “Do any of my Facebook friends know anybody Jewish In Nebraska?” And they were in Omaha, and I got a lot of answers. So apparently there’s a lot of Jews in Omaha. And I said to this one gentleman, “Do you know this family?” He said “yes.” And I said, “Can you make an introduction? I just wanted to share something with them.” So when I spoke to Mr. Rich and Mrs. Rich, I shared with them what I had heard. It wasn’t a big deal or not, but I just didn’t feel right having known it or heard it and not shared it with them. And then I said, “How is this going?” He said, “Ed, we’re not getting any answers at all. We know nothing. No one’s talking to us, no one’s communicating with us, they said they would keep us updated, and it’s been crickets.” And I said, “Well maybe you should hire somebody to work for you, like a private detective.” And they said, “Well that would be amazing, but we just don’t have the money to do it.”

And at that moment, I thought, you know what, I’m going to help these people out. So I said, “Listen, I will be happy to foot the bill.” In my back of my mind, I’m thinking I have no idea how much these people cost, but I hope it’s not a fortune because I’m not a real rich guy. But I thought, you know what, I’m going to help these people out because somehow these people need to know what happened to their little boy. And I offered it up, I said, “Let me see if I can find someone.” I actually found Rod Wheeler because he’s got a great reputation.

They negotiated something between them and I said any bills at all, I would pay for. They put it in a contract that said any bills, Ed Butowsky would pay, which is completely accurate, and that was the end of it. They put it in the contract to make sure that the family wasn’t going to be held liable for it, and that’s it. Next thing you know, I’m like in -- weird things start happening, David. But that is what happened, and that’s how I got involved, simply trying to help a man and a lady find out who killed their son.

Related:

NPR: Behind Fox News' baseless Seth Rich story: The untold tale

Previously:

Trump administration met with a GOP donor and a Fox contributor about a fake story meant to distract from Russia probe

CNN's Brian Stelter explains how new Seth Rich report shows the “connections between Fox and the White House”

How the murder of a DNC staffer turned into a right-wing conspiracy