A Republican strategist and lobbyist who offered a financial reward for information on the murder of Democratic staffer Seth Rich was violently attacked earlier this week at his home by an unknown assailant.
Jack Burkman, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-virginia-crime/republican-lobbyist-tied-to-controversial-causes-attacked-in-virginia-idUSKBN1F62BJ">host of</a> &#8220;Behind the Curtain&#8221; on Radio America, was attacked at his home in Arlington, Virginia on Tuesday as he approached the front door, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/conservative-lobbyist-was-attacked-outside-his-arlington-home-tuesday-evening-police-say/2018/01/17/9e9340d6-fba4-11e7-a46b-a3614530bd87_story.html">The Washington Post</a> reports.
According to the police report, a man in a dark-colored SUV parked in Burkman&#8217;s driveway and exited the vehicle when he saw Burkman approaching his home, sprayed him with a &#8220;caustic substance,&#8221; hit him in the head and then drove off. The Post notes:
<blockquote>
Burkman said in an interview, he walked to the grocery store, a short distance from his quiet Arlington street a few blocks from the Potomac. He purchased items for dinner and went home, so lost in his own thoughts that he said he didn&#8217;t notice the dark SUV in his driveway until he was about 30 feet away.
As Burkman tells it, a man in a black jacket got out of the SUV on the passenger side and, as he came around to the front of the car, put on a mask that &#8220;looked like something you would see in one of the movies of a bank robber.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Burkman said that the attack &#8220;looked professional.&#8221; Though he said he has angered many people in his life, Burkman did not have any idea who could have been behind the attack. A few notable controversial actions by Burkman:
<ul>
<li>He promoted banning gay football players from the NFL.</li>
<li>He offered a $130,000 reward for information on the murder of former DNC staffer Seth Rich.</li>
<li>He appeared in court hours before the attack in the case against former Trump campaign official Rick Gates after he purportedly held a fundraiser to help raise money for Gates&#8217; legal defense.</li>
</ul>

Man Who Offered Reward For Info On Seth Rich Murder Is Attacked By Unknown Assailant

Democratic Party

Seth Rich

The Seth Rich murder conspiracy is a long and winding one. The as-of-yet unsolved murder case has been warped into something out of a spy thriller by conspiracy theorists who claim that Rich disseminated leaked DNC emails to WikiLeaks, and was murdered for it.
Rod Wheeler is a private investigator who was retained by the Rich family to investigate Seth&#8217;s death. Wealth manager and Fox News contributor, Ed Butowsky, allegedly bankrolled Wheeler&#8217;s hire.
Butowsky was working with investigative journalist Malia Zimmerman, who, in May of 2017, published a piece in which she allegedly falsely quoted Wheeler. Now, the private investigator has filed suit against Butowsky, Zimmerman, 21st Century Fox, and Fox News.
It must be strongly noted that these are all unverified allegations, and they should be treated as such.
Here are the ten most interesting portions of the lawsuit documents (any supplementary text from myself will appear in bold, or be clearly noted):
1. False Quotes
&#8220;My investigation up to this point shows there was some degree of email exchange between Seth Rich and WikiLeaks,&#8221; said Wheeler. 
&#8220;My investigation shows someone within the DC government, Democratic National Committee or Clinton team is blocking the murder investigation from going forward,&#8221; Wheeler said. &#8220;That is unfortunate. Seth Rich&#8217;s murder is unsolved as a result of that.&#8221;
2. Alleged Presidential Involvement
Alleged text from Butowsky to Wheeler: &#8220;Not to add any more pressure but the president just read the article. He wants the article out immediately. It&#8217;s now all up to you. But don&#8217;t feel the pressure.&#8221;
Alleged voicemail from Butowsky to Wheeler: &#8220;A couple minutes ago I got a note that we have the full, uh, attention of the White House, on this. And, tomorrow, let&#8217;s close this deal, whatever we&#8217;ve got to do. But you can feel free to say that the White House is on to this now.&#8221;
Very shortly after the article was published, Mr. Wheeler called Butowsky and demanded an explanation for the false statements about him in Zimmerman&#8217;s article. Butowsky stated that the quotes were included because that is the way the president wanted the article, referring to President Donald Trump. A few days later, Butowsky wrote to Zimmerman, &#8220;I didn&#8217;t tell you yet but the federal government is involved at this moment, behind the scenes and believe your story.&#8221; 
3. Agenda
As it turned out, Butowsky and Zimmerman were not simply Good Samaritans attempting to solve a murder. Rather, they were interested in advancing a political agenda for the Trump Administration. Specifically, it was their aim to have Mr. Wheeler confirm that: (i) Seth Rich was responsible for the leak of DNC emails to WikiLeaks; and (ii) Seth Rich was murdered by a Democrat operative because he leaked the emails to WikiLeaks.
Statement allegedly made by Butowsky: &#8220;The most important thing is this. Everyone, there&#8217;s so many people throughout Trump&#8217;s four years and maybe eight years are always going to fall back on the idea that he is not legitimate and the Russians got him elected. This information [about Seth Rich providing emails to WikiLeaks] changes all of that.&#8221;
Butowsky and Zimmerman were not in this alone. Rather, in the weeks and months leading up to the publication of Zimmerman&#8217;s May 16, 2017, article, Butowsky kept in regular contact with Trump Administration officials &#8212; including Mr. Spicer, Mr. Bannon and Director of Public Affairs at the Department of Justice, Sarah Flores &#8212; regarding his efforts relating to Seth Rich. As noted above, Butowsky informed Mr. Wheeler two days before Zimmerman&#8217;s article came out that President Trump had read it and wanted it published &#8220;immediately.&#8221;
Prior to that, Butowsky and Mr. Wheeler met with Mr. Spicer and provided him with a copy of Mr. Wheeler&#8217;s investigative notes. Mr. Spicer asked to be kept abreast of developments and, upon information and belief, Butowsky did keep Mr. Spicer abreast of developments.
4. Trump Denies
The following isn&#8217;t in the court documents, but is pertinent to the story. On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders <a href="http://deadline.com/2017/08/donald-trump-white-house-briefing-sarah-huckabee-sanders-seth-rich-fox-news-lawsuit-1202140114/">denied</a> any administration involvement in this lawsuit:
&#8220;The president had no knowledge of the story and it is completely untrue that there was White House involvement in the story. &#8230; Beyond that, this is ongoing litigation and I refer you to the actual parties involved, which aren&#8217;t the White House.&#8221;
5. Missing Quotes
On May 11, 2017, Zimmerman sent Mr. Wheeler a draft of her story regarding the Seth Rich murder. The draft did not contain any quotes from Mr. Wheeler to the effect that Seth Rich had sent any emails to WikiLeaks, nor did the draft quote Mr. Wheeler as saying that the DNC, Democratic Party or Clintons were engaged in a cover-up.
Less than 24 hours later, on May 15, 2017, Zimmerman informed Mr. Wheeler that she would be publishing her story immediately. The story was published the following morning with the false quotations from Mr. Wheeler that were clearly fabricated to lend support to the claim that Seth Rich, and not the Russians, was the source for the DNC emails released on WikiLeaks.
6. Fox Retracts
On May 16, 2017, Mr. Wheeler called Zimmerman and confronted her about the use of false statements. Zimmerman told Mr. Wheeler that she would have the statements removed from the article. However they were not removed and, later that day, Zimmerman told Mr. Wheeler that she had been instructed by her bosses at Fox News to leave the false quotes in the story.
On May 23, 2017, Fox finally retracted Zimmerman&#8217;s article and issued the following statement, &#8220;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,&#8221; the statement said. &#8220;We will continue to investigate this story and will provide updates as warranted.&#8221; However, Fox did not clear Mr. Wheeler&#8217;s name and never admitted that Zimmerman had misquoted him.
7. Anxiety
Throughout March 2017, Butowsky exhibited a great deal of anxiety with Jack Burkman, a Republican lobbyist who claimed to have evidence that Seth Rich was killed by Russian operatives after Seth Rich discovered that the Russians had hacked the DNC. Obviously this narrative would contradict the story Butowsky wanted to write, and on March 2, 2017, Butowsky asked Zimmerman for Mr. Berkman&#8217;s contact information and stated, &#8220;I need to shut him up.&#8221;
8. Detective
Mr. Wheeler was able to secure an interview with detective Della-Camera, with the Washington D.C. Metro Police Department on April 24th, 2017. Detective Della-Camera is the lead homicide detective on the Seth Rich case. The night before the interview, Mr. Wheeler received an email from Butowsky that stated: &#8220;Della-Camera is either helping us or we will go after him as being part of the cover-up.&#8221; Mr. Wheeler eventually met with detective Della-Camera on April 25, 2017. Detective Della-Camera confirmed that he still believed that Seth Rich&#8217;s murder was the result of a robbery gone bad. Detective Della-Camera also stated that he had nothing to say or to show that the shooting was related to emails or anything other than a street robbery.
9. Admitting
Mr. Wheeler confronted Zimmerman again about her false statements, as well as her false claim to Joel Rich that &#8220;much of the information&#8221; from her article came from Mr. Wheeler. Mr. Wheeler stated: &#8220;I kinda came across a response that you had to Joel &#8230; the thing that I&#8217;m a little concerned about is that it says &#8216;as you know, much of our information came from a private investigator, Rod Wheeler, who we understand was working on behalf of you.'&#8221;
Zimmerman responded, &#8220;that&#8217;s the email that Fox asked me to send him. They wrote it for me and they told me to send it to him.&#8221; Mr. Wheeler challenged her: &#8220;But that&#8217;s not accurate though because much, much of the information did not come from me.&#8221; In response, Zimmerman admitted: &#8220;Umm, well not not not &#8230; 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.&#8221;
Later in the same conversation, Butowsky also conceded that the quotes were not made by Mr. Wheeler: &#8220;One day you&#8217;re going to win an award for having said those things you didn&#8217;t say.&#8221;
10. Fox Won&#8217;t Apologize
Fox did not clear Mr. Wheeler&#8217;s name and never admitted that Zimmerman had misquoted him. As such, Mr. Wheeler requested and attended a meeting with Ms. Brandi and Jay Wallace, Fox News&#8217; Executive Vice President of News and Editorial. Mr. Wheeler explained to Ms. Brandi and Mr. Wallace that he had not provided Zimmerman with the quotations she used in her article. He also informed Ms. Brandi and Mr. Wallace that Zimmerman had admitted that Mr. Wheeler had not provided her the information regarding WikiLeaks that she attributed to him in the article. Nevertheless, to this day Fox has not issued any statement admitting that the quotes attributed to Mr. Wheeler were not made by him.
Multiple parties, including Butowsky, claim the allegations made in Wheeler&#8217;s lawsuit are patently false. The entire court document can be read <a href="https://twitter.com/anhaiphung/status/892376645931196416">here</a>.

Lawsuit: Fox News, White House Collaborated To Push Seth Rich Conspiracy Theory

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about whether President Trump was involved in the crafting and pushing of the Seth Rich conspiracy theory, as a <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/01/media/rod-wheeler-seth-rich-fox-news-lawsuit/index.html">new lawsuit alleges</a>. She denied Trump&#8217;s involvement in any way: &#8220;The president had no knowledge of the story and it&#8217;s completely untrue that he or the White House had any involvement.&#8221;
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That&#8217;s good. Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that he met with the lawyer who funded the Rich investigation, Ed Butowski, in April. He told NPR, &#8220;It had nothing to do with advancing the president&#8217;s domestic agenda &#8211; and there was no agenda. They were just informing me of the story.&#8221; Huckabee Sanders&#8217; statement isn&#8217;t in conflict with Spicer&#8217;s.
But then Huckabee Sanders was then asked whether Trump believes the conspiracy theory that Rich, a Democratic National Committee staffer, was actually working for Wikileaks and handing them material from the DNC, and was then murdered in connection with his activities. Huckabee Sanders&#8217; answer: she was &#8220;not sure.&#8221;
Here we get to a nasty problem for White House press spokespeople: while it would be beneficial to the president to disown evidence-free conspiracy theories, Trump himself could go on Twitter and destroy any denial at any time. He has repeatedly undercut members of his own administration after they go out on a limb for him &#8211; in fact, in this press conference, Huckabee Sanders was forced to acknowledge that Trump was involved in drafting Donald Trump Jr.&#8217;s public statement on his 2016 meeting with Russian-involved lawyers, leaving his own lawyer, Jay Sekulow, out to dry. Sekulow isn&#8217;t the first, and he won&#8217;t be the last.
That means that press secretaries aren&#8217;t free to assume even the most rational responses to the most ridiculous questions. They have to fear that Trump will immediately blow them up. Which means that the media can have a field day by asking White House press secretaries about every ridiculous theory under the sun, and then using non-denials to smash Trump. Here&#8217;s the line of questioning:
Media: &#8220;Does the President believe the moon is made of cheese?&#8221;
Huckabee Sanders: &#8220;I am not sure. We haven&#8217;t spoken about that.&#8221;
Headline: &#8220;PRESIDENT MAY BELIEVE MOON MADE OF CHEESE.&#8221;
That&#8217;s Trump&#8217;s fault, of course. Were he predictable in any way, the press secretary would have an easy job: of course the president doesn&#8217;t believe the moon is made of cheese!
But Trump isn&#8217;t predictable. He&#8217;s unstable, and he does tend to believe half-crazy conspiracy theories (see Obama&#8217;s birth certificate, anti-vaccination lunacy, Rafael Cruz&#8217;s involvement with the JFK assassination). It&#8217;s a tough job being press secretary under the best of circumstances. With a client like President Trump, that job becomes nearly impossible.

White House Press Secretary: ‘Not Sure’ Whether Trump Believes Seth Rich Conspiracy Theories

Donald Trump

Sarah Huckabee Sanders

The Seth Rich case has been really weird &#8212; and keeps getting weirder.
Rich was the young man, just 27, who worked at the Democratic National Committee until he was fatally shot in an upscale neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Conspiracists say perhaps Rich was connected to the emergence of DNC emails just before the 2016 presidential election that humiliated Hillary Clinton, causing her loss. Others think that Clinton had him murdered (they did, after all, have 48 other <a href="http://www.snopes.com/politics/clintons/bodycount.asp">people murdered</a>).
The case was odd from the start. Rich&#8217;s mother said shortly after the shooting, &#8220;There had been a struggle. His hands were bruised, his knees are bruised, his face is bruised, and yet he had two shots to his back, and yet they never took anything. &#8230; They didn&#8217;t finish robbing him, they just took his life,&#8221; she said, according to told NBC&#8217;s WRC-TV.
The D.C. police have been working the case since the murder, one year and one day ago, but only as a robbery gone bad. Early on, the Rich family accepted an offer for free public relations services from Republican lobbyist Jack Burkman, but he later added to the confusion, saying the Russians were involved.
Then Seth&#8217;s brother got into the mix, starting a GoFundMe campaign to collect $200,000 to conduct a full probe. And then former homicide detective and Fox News contributor Rod Wheeler jumped in. Wheeler said Rich had a relationship with Wikileaks, which would eventually be the source of the embarrassing Hillary emails.
Intrigue upon intrigue.
The whole case just keeps getting weirder. And a year later, there are still no leads. Despite hundreds of thousands of dollars offered in rewards, no one has come forward with information about the killers.
Now, in another twist, the Rich family is striking back at anyone who wants to keep pursuing the killers, <a href="https://www.rt.com/viral/395892-seth-rich-dnc-death/#.WWPwwrIB4nc.twitter">reports RT</a>.
<blockquote>
In a statement released on the one-year anniversary of Rich&#8217;s death, the family have pleaded for those investigating the case to &#8220;cease using Seth as a political football in predetermined partisan narratives.&#8221;

The family adds: &#8220;The continual push of false and inaccurate information about Seth&#8217;s death, along with the harassment of Seth&#8217;s friends, family and co-workers, hurts those who were closest to Seth, and does nothing to bring justice to his killers.&#8221;
A rally and vigil is being held in Spirit of Justice Park near Capitol Hill to mark the anniversary of the murder.
Rich&#8217;s death sparked the imaginations of amateur sleuths across the US.
Last month, a group of students from George Washington University known as the &#8216;Profiling Project&#8217; released their own independent report into the killing. The report states that the shooting was likely committed by a hired killer.
</blockquote>
All that makes Roger Stone, the outspoken Republican political strategist, curious. 
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Does anyone else thinks it&#8217;s odd that Seth Rich&#8217;s parents have no interest in finding out who killed their son ? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/payoff?src=hash">#payoff</a>? <a href="https://t.co/57Qk1JH3d5">https://t.co/57Qk1JH3d5</a>
&#8212; Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) <a href="https://twitter.com/RogerJStoneJr/status/884526482160320512">July 10, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
The comment on Twitter did not go over well.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
That is one of the most disgusting comments ever. Obviously and thankfully you have not lost a child. You should be ashamed of yourself.
&#8212; Mark S. Zaid (@MarkSZaidEsq) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkSZaidEsq/status/884555746263928832">July 10, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
What? It&#8217;s all one giant conspiracy, and even his parents are in on it?
&#8212; James Love (@jamie_love) <a href="https://twitter.com/jamie_love/status/884527874836967424">July 10, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Maybe they know more than you? Maybe they agree with the police account and don&#8217;t want their grief used for profit from bad actors like you?
&#8212; MacGregor (@m4cgr3g0r) <a href="https://twitter.com/m4cgr3g0r/status/884527115261038592">July 10, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
We&#8217;ll just predict this: We haven&#8217;t heard the last of this case.

Roger Stone Wonders Why Seth Rich’s Parents Don’t Want To Know Who Killed Their Son

A group called The Profiling Project, that describes itself on its <a href="http://thepublicityagency.com/the-profiling-project/">website</a> as &#8220;an autonomous and independent unit investigating the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich,&#8221; is so desperate for attention that it announced on Monday that it would make a film reenacting Rich&#8217;s murder, despite the family having written long before to the public, &#8220;Please cease using Seth as a political football in predetermined partisan narratives.&#8221;
That doesn&#8217;t matter to The Profiling Project, apparently; on Monday, the one -year anniversary of Rich&#8217;s death, it was <a href="https://www.prnewschannel.com/2017/07/10/jack-burkman-sets-aug-1-for-hollywood-style-re-enactment-of-seth-rich-murder/">reported</a> on PRNewsChannel:
<blockquote>
The Profiling Project, the independent, nonpartisan and autonomous unit investigating the mysterious unsolved murder of Seth Rich, announced today that to catch the killer or killers, the group will stage a re-enactment of the murder on Tuesday, August 1 funded by Jack Burkman.
Mirroring a Hollywood set, complete with lights, cameras and actors, the group says known facts of the Seth Rich case will be coupled with various probable scenarios to act out what happened that night. It will be open to the media.
&#8220;Reenactments help catch killers. We must therefore rise to the occasion and give Washington, D.C. and this nation one of the finest crime reenactments ever done,&#8221; says lobbyist/lawyer Jack Burkman, director of The Profiling Project.
&#8230; &#8220;Never has there been such a high-profile case with a complete lack of information released by police. It&#8217;s almost appears as though they don&#8217;t want this case solved,&#8221; says Burkman. &#8220;Police continue to say it was random and that it was a robbery gone bad yet nothing was taken. There&#8217;s something not right and I&#8217;m not going to quit until we get to the truth of who is responsible for the killing.&#8221;
&#8230; In addition to The Profiling Project, Burkman, a GOP lobbyist and lawyer, has put up $105-thousand in reward money&#8212;the largest single contribution from an individual. He has also erected billboards in the neighborhood, created the website whokilledseth.com and filed suit against the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), among others, to force the release of more evidence publicly, including videotapes of the crime.
</blockquote>
Here was the request from the Rich family:
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
&#8230;as Seth Rich&#8217;s family pleads with people to stop things like this: &#8220;we recognize the futility of this request.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/nlkXKf5gtM">pic.twitter.com/nlkXKf5gtM</a>
&#8212; Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) <a href="https://twitter.com/aseitzwald/status/884415905266118656">July 10, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
Despite the claims of those on the Right of a conspiracy in Rich&#8217;s murder, there was copious <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/16811/hannity-im-not-going-talk-about-seth-rich-james-barrett">backtracking</a> from various media figures on the Right who had <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/16768/right-falling-another-fake-news-hoax-seth-rich-aaron-bandler">claimed</a> there was, indeed, a conspiracy. <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/16561/7-things-you-need-know-about-seth-rich-murder-aaron-bandler">No evidence</a> has been found that there was a conspiracy afoot.
None of that matters to the folks at The Profiling Project, who have stated:
<blockquote>
We hope that by assembling this wholly volunteer, non-partisan team of objective forensic-psychology graduate students, psychologists and former federal/local law enforcement officers/agents, that we may be able to provide beneficial additional tools, resources and analysis in the murder of Seth.
We understand law enforcement is still vigorously pursuing the criminal investigation into the murder with the fullest of scope, effort and attention. We also understand that as with many cold-case murders, the assistance of the public is a valuable asset to law enforcement agencies, as it is often the public who provides a crucial piece of information well after the initial investigation.
By using various psychological tools and techniques like geographical profiling, victimology and investigative psychology, we hope to provide significant, actionable information and insight that may assist in the arrest and prosecution of Seth&#8217;s murderer and give closure to his family.
</blockquote>
So much for respect for the family&#8217;s wishes.

Seth Rich Family Begs Media To Leave Their Son’s Murder Alone. This Republican Lobbyist Said No.

Republican Party

The conspiracy theory that Seth Rich was murdered over his supposed ties to WikiLeaks was revived when a Fox report purportedly substantiated those claims, but the report was <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/16534/confusing-and-improbable-seth-rich-murder-turned-frank-camp">quickly debunked</a>. And yet, a number of people on the Right continue to perpetuate the conspiracy theory, which is simply reprehensible.
Here is a roundup of those on the Right perpetuating this ridiculous conspiracy theory.
Sean Hannity.
Hannity has become one of the more vocal and well-known proponents of the conspiracy theory; he had the source of the Fox report claiming he had seen evidence that Rich was in contact with WikiLeaks. As The Washington Post&#8216;s Dave Weigel <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/05/20/the-seth-rich-conspiracy-shows-how-fake-news-still-works/?utm_term=.d49b9c10c621">pointed out</a>, Hannity didn&#8217;t seem to realize that the source, private investigator Rod Wheeler, was actually walking back his story on-air:
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Hannity has been doubling down on Twitter about the conspiracy theory, reaching fever-pitch levels:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Congress, investigate Seth Rich Murder! <a href="https://twitter.com/JulianAssange">@JulianAssange</a> made comments u need to listen to! If Seth was wiki source, no Trump/Russia collusion <a href="https://t.co/QPHZwypU34">https://t.co/QPHZwypU34</a>
&#8212; Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) <a href="https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/866454097599356929">May 22, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Sue for what?? He was Murdered. Watch <a href="https://twitter.com/JulianAssange">@JulianAssange</a> interview. Maybe <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump">@realDonaldTrump</a> should sue all u snowflakes for lying about him. Lol <a href="https://t.co/XDqhsRCs6k">https://t.co/XDqhsRCs6k</a>
&#8212; Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) <a href="https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/866478848657027073">May 22, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
DNC knows this is 1000% true. An important piece of information. Follow this closely! <a href="https://t.co/ageQdeXBU3">https://t.co/ageQdeXBU3</a>
&#8212; Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) <a href="https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/866940981010214913">May 23, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
A couple of Hannity&#8217;s tweets involve him quote-tweeting Kim Dotcom, whom Hannity <a href="https://twitter.com/seanhannity">seems</a> to be treating as a legitimate source on the matter. However, Dotcom cannot be considered to be a legitimate source.
According to <a href="https://www.wired.com/2012/01/kim-dotcom/">Wired</a>:
<blockquote>
The man once known as Kim Schmitz (and as Kimble, and as Kim Tim Jim Vestor, and finally as Kim Dotcom), now awaiting extradition from New Zealand to face charges of conspiracy, money laundering and copyright crimes in the US, has enveloped his actual life in a cloud of hype and bluster that echo the worst of the dot-com bubble from which he took his new surname. In 2001, the Telegraph called Schmitz &#8220;a PR man&#8217;s nightmare and a journalist&#8217;s dream.&#8221;
</blockquote>
The article also notes that Dotcom &#8220;was convicted of 11 counts of computer fraud, 10 counts of data espionage, and an assortment of other charges&#8221; in 1998 but because he was only 20 years old he received &#8220;a two-year suspended sentence.&#8221;
In other words, the source that Hannity is hyping to prove the Rich conspiracy theory is a man who has been convicted of computer fraud, is facing extradition over a myriad of charges and has a history of puffing his own image.
Not that any of that would matter to Hannity:
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Very interesting. My heart is not troubled in the least. Night all. <a href="https://t.co/MgOow2XVYu">https://t.co/MgOow2XVYu</a>
&#8212; Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) <a href="https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/866867980424105988">May 23, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
Well, as long as his heart isn&#8217;t troubled that makes it all fine and dandy.
Gateway Pundit.
This pro-Trump news outlet (and that&#8217;s putting it mildly) has been fanning the flames of the Rich conspiracy theory for quite some time. Here are some examples of some of their headlines on the matter:
<a href="http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/05/police-never-asked-surveillance-video-bar-seth-rich-last-spotted-hours-murder/">Police Never Asked For Surveillance Video From Bar Seth Rich Was Last Spotted Hours Before His Murder</a>
<a href="http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/05/boom-hacker-kim-dotcom-knew-seth-rich-wikileaks-source-involved/">BOOM! Hacker Kim Dotcom: &#8220;I Knew Seth Rich Was the Wikileaks Source &#8211; I Was Involved&#8221; (Updated)</a>
<a href="http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/05/breaking-complete-panic-set-highest-levels-dnc-seth-rich-murder-investigation/">Breaking: &#8216;Complete Panic&#8217; at Highest Levels of DNC Over Kim DotCom&#8217;s Seth Rich Announcement</a>
The funny thing is that in two of those articles, they link to 4Chan and Reddit as legitimate sources. Seriously. The other treats World Net Daily (WND) as a legitimate source, a website that has <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/terry-krepel/worldnetdaily-will-die-on_b_12095292.html">constantly hyped conspiracy theories about Barack Obama&#8217;s birth certificate</a>.
It would certainly explain why the Gateway Pundit has been dubbed the <a href="http://www.redstate.com/jimjamitis/2017/02/26/fake-news-king-gateway-pundit-proves-hes-not-just-bad-reporter-hes-bad-person/">&#8220;Fake News King.&#8221;</a>
Drudge Report.
Drudge seems to be doing their part in perpetuating the Rich conspiracy:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
DEAD DNC STAFFER &#8216;HAD CONTACT&#8217; WITH WIKILEAKS <a href="https://t.co/nhjStpu5Mf">https://t.co/nhjStpu5Mf</a>
&#8212; DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) <a href="https://twitter.com/DRUDGE_REPORT/status/864454442250256384">May 16, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
KIM DOTBOMB: DNC LEAK TO WIKI CAME FROM WITHIN&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/OHA2mlaShX">https://t.co/OHA2mlaShX</a>
&#8212; DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) <a href="https://twitter.com/DRUDGE_REPORT/status/866623770852708353">May 22, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
Drudge even had the Rich story as the banner link on its site:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
So who was pushing the false story about Seth Rich? Well, to begin with: 
-Fox News 
-Breitbart 
-Drudge Report
12/ <a href="https://t.co/hBAtC9XpEA">pic.twitter.com/hBAtC9XpEA</a>
&#8212; Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) <a href="https://twitter.com/RVAwonk/status/864703535115632640">May 17, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
One America News Network (OAN).
OAN produced a lengthy video that hypes the Rich conspiracy theory and treats the now-debunked Fox story as fact as well as perpetuating another conspiracy theory that the Clintons were behind <a href="http://www.snopes.com/un-official-john-ashe-killed-the-day-before-he-was-to-testify-against-hillary-clinton/">the death of former United Nations diplomat John Ashe</a>:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FAA9Gy2SXdg" width="560"></iframe></div>
Breitbart.
Here are some of their headlines on the matter:
<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2017/05/16/silence-from-establishment-media-over-seth-rich-wikileaks-report/">Silence from Establishment Media over Seth Rich WikiLeaks Report</a>
<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2017/05/16/4-unanswered-questions-surrounding-murdered-dnc-staffer-seth-rich/">4 Unanswered Questions Surrounding Murdered DNC Staffer Seth Rich</a>
<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/05/16/seth-rich-wikileaks-emails-fbi/">Fox News: Seth Rich, Murdered DNC Staffer, &#8216;Leaked Thousands of Internal Emails to WikiLeaks&#8217;</a>
It&#8217;s only fitting that the site that Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro has called <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/8441/i-know-trumps-new-campaign-chairman-steve-bannon-ben-shapiro">&#8220;Trump Pravda&#8221;</a> and panders to the odious alt-right would fan the flames of the Rich conspiracy theory.
Infowars.
It wouldn&#8217;t be a conspiracy theory without Infowars getting in on it:
<a href="https://www.infowars.com/dems-walk-back-trump-impeachment-calls-amid-seth-rich-probe/">DEMS WALK BACK TRUMP IMPEACHMENT CALLS AMID SETH RICH PROBE</a>
<a href="https://www.infowars.com/fbi-has-forensic-evidence-that-ties-wikileaks-to-seth-rich/">FBI HAS FORENSIC EVIDENCE THAT TIES WIKILEAKS TO SETH RICH</a>
<a href="https://www.infowars.com/msm-covers-up-murder-of-dnc-staffer-seth-rich/">MSM COVERS UP MURDER OF DNC STAFFER SETH RICH</a>
Infowars&#8217; Paul Joseph Watson has also been spreading the conspiracy on <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=paul%20joseph%20watson%20seth%20rich&amp;src=typd">Twitter</a>.
<div class="embed tweet"></div>
World Net Daily.
WND, which also has a reputation for pushing conspiracy theories, is naturally pushing the Rich one as well:
<a href="http://www.wnd.com/2017/05/bombshell-donna-brazile-probing-seth-rich-murder-says-private-eye/">BOMBSHELL: DONNA BRAZILE WARNED OFF PRIVATE EYE ON SETH RICH MURDER</a>
<a href="http://www.wnd.com/2017/05/chilling-similarities-between-seth-rich-murder-and-clinton-body-count-victims/">CHILLING SIMILARITIES BETWEEN SETH RICH MURDER AND &#8216;CLINTON BODY COUNT&#8217; VICTIMS</a>
<a href="http://www.wnd.com/2017/05/news-media-in-blackout-mode-over-seth-rich-revelations/">NEWS MEDIA BLACKOUT OVER SETH RICH REVELATIONS</a>
The conspiracy theories that the Clintons have murdered others has been pervasive among some of the Right for quite some time, but <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/8303/how-many-clinton-associates-have-died-over-years-aaron-bandler">there is zero evidence linking the Clintons to any murders</a>.
Bill Mitchell.
The Trump cultist has repeatedly called for <a href="https://twitter.com/mitchellvii/status/864465923436105728">a special prosecutor</a> to investigate the Rich murder on Twitter.
Mike Cernovich.
Like Hannity, Cernovich has been vocal about the Rich conspiracy theory on <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=mike%20cernovich%20seth%20rich&amp;src=typd">Twitter</a> and is pushing Dotcom as a legitimate source.
<div class="embed tweet"></div>
In a prior <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/16561/7-things-you-need-know-about-seth-rich-murder-aaron-bandler">list</a>, The Daily Wire put forward the facts surrounding the Rich case and showed that there is nothing to indicate that Rich was in contact with WikiLeaks and that such a theory doesn&#8217;t even make sense, since all evidence points to the DNC and John Podesta&#8217;s emails being hacked. Unfortunately, there are no leads at this point, so it&#8217;s hard to know for sure what happened on the night of Rich&#8217;s murder, but the police&#8217;s belief that it was a botched robbery does make the most sense, even if nothing was taken from Rich, because the conspiracy theorists seem to be unaware that a botched robbery means it was a robbery gone wrong.
But that doesn&#8217;t matter to those perpetuating the Rich conspiracy theory, because they desperately want it to be true in order to prove that Russia didn&#8217;t provide WikiLeaks with those emails, hence proving that there was no collusion between Donald Trump and Russia during the campaign. The Democrats have yet <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/16746/5-reasons-trump-isnt-going-be-impeached-aaron-bandler">to convince the public of such collusion</a>, so there&#8217;s no need for the Right to fight the Democrats&#8217; insanity with their own insanity and worsen the pain of Rich&#8217;s grieving family.
<a href="https://twitter.com/bandlersbanter">Follow Aaron Bandler on Twitter.</a>

Is The Right Falling For Another Fake News Hoax With Seth Rich?

Breitbart

Infowars

Matt Drudge

Sean Hannity

On Tuesday, Fox News&#8217; Sean Hannity continued his quixotic quest to unmask the killer of former Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich, who was shot to death in 2016 on the streets of Washington D.C. in an apparent botched robbery. Hannity has been leading the charge, suggesting a conspiracy at play: Rich was supposedly leaking emails from the DNC to Wikileaks, and was then supposedly killed by&#8230;John Podesta, or somebody. That&#8217;s the theory. Why does Hannity care? Because if Rich was leaking the emails to Wikileaks from the DNC, that would take Russians off the hook for hacking &#8211; and by extension, would take the Trump campaign off the hook for supposed collusion with the Russians in hacking.
Here&#8217;s Hannity tweeting just that:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Congress, investigate Seth Rich Murder! <a href="https://twitter.com/JulianAssange">@JulianAssange</a> made comments u need to listen to! If Seth was wiki source, no Trump/Russia collusion <a href="https://t.co/QPHZwypU34">https://t.co/QPHZwypU34</a>
&#8212; Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) <a href="https://twitter.com/seanhannity/status/866454097599356929">May 22, 2017</a></blockquote>
Now it&#8217;s worth noting that Trump himself is the head of the executive branch, and his FBI would presumably be more responsible for an investigation than Congress. But Hannity doesn&#8217;t call on Trump to get involved, because Trump must be protected at all costs.
If all this seems preposterous, that&#8217;s because it is.
First off, there is no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. That should be enough for Trump&#8217;s defenders like Hannity. Why not just point out that Democrats are out over their skis in incredible fashion, and wait for the various investigations to come to their quiet conclusions? Instead, Hannity (who is not alt-right) and the alt-right trolls are out to exonerate Russia when no exoneration is necessary on Trump&#8217;s behalf.
Second, the original report on Seth Rich was replete with errors. The private investigator who claimed he had evidence Rich leaked to Wikileaks had no such evidence, and the Fox News report quoting an FBI source saying that the FBI had evidence of such leaks as well as debunked by Newsweek, which reported that the FBI had no role in investigating Rich&#8217;s murder.
Third, Hannity&#8217;s reliance on the word of Kim Dotcom, an internet troll of the highest order, is foolish. Dotcom claims that he &#8220;knew Seth Rich. I know he was the @Wikileaks source. I was involved.&#8221; He then pitched a statement to be released today. Here is the entirety of the statement:
<blockquote>
I KNOW THAT SETH RICH WAS INVOLVED IN THE DNC LEAK.
I know this because in late 2014 a person contacted me about helping me to start a branch of the Internet Party in the United States. He called himself Panda. I now know that Panda was Seth Rich.
Panda advised me that he was working on voter analytics tools and other technologies that the Internet Party may find helpful.
I communicated with Panda on a number of topics including corruption and the influence of corporate money in politics.
&#8220;He wanted to change that from the inside.&#8221;
I was referring to what I knew when I did an interview with Bloomberg in New Zealand in May 2015. In that interview I hinted that Julian Assange and Wikileaks would release information about Hillary Clinton in the upcoming election.
The Rich family has reached out to me to ask that I be sensitive to their loss in my public comments. That request is entirely reasonable.
I have consulted with my lawyers. I accept that my full statement should be provided to the authorities and I am prepared to do that so that there can be a full investigation. My lawyers will speak with the authorities regarding the proper process.
If my evidence is required to be given in the United States I would be prepared to do so if appropriate arrangements are made. I would need a guarantee from Special Counsel Mueller, on behalf of the United States, of safe passage from New Zealand to the United States and back. In the coming days we will be communicating with the appropriate authorities to make the necessary arrangements. In the meantime, I will make no further comment.
</blockquote>
If you conclude that this statement means nothing, that&#8217;s because it means nothing. And Dotcom is hardly a reliable source: as Rich&#8217;s brother points out, &#8220;In March, Kim circulated a letter purporting to show a conspiracy against him. New Zealand law enforcement officials investigated the letter thoroughly and discovered without a shadow of a doubt that the letter was a forgery.&#8221; Yet Hannity continues to push Dotcom.
All of this is both unnecessary and deeply disturbing on a moral level &#8211; the family appears to believe their son is being used as a political pawn, and without Hannity providing any evidence to support his allegations, it&#8217;s hard to believe they&#8217;re not.
But that&#8217;s not stopping Newt Gingrich from leveling accusations about Seth Rich. Or Alex Jones. Or Roger Stone. It&#8217;s not stopping <a href="https://t.co/Fn8cRWFcIm">One America News</a> from offering a $100,000 reward for information about Rich&#8217;s murder.
How about this: before we peddle conspiracy theories, we take a look at the evidence. And before we peddle conspiracy theories that allege collusion between a dead political operative and Wikileaks, we take a serious look beyond the tweets of Julian Assange and Kim Dotcom.
Is that so difficult?
If you have to defend President Trump this way, Sean, it makes you look desperate and Trump look guilty. You shouldn&#8217;t be desperate (Trump won!), and there&#8217;s no evidence that he&#8217;s guilty. Unless you have some evidence you haven&#8217;t shown the world in the Seth Rich case, please stop.
UPDATE: Shortly after this story went up, Fox News retracted its original story on the Seth Rich murder discussed in this article.

Hannity Still Pushing Seth Rich Conspiracy Murder Theory Without Any Evidence. Please Stop.

Adding to the craziness of an already insane news cycle is the story involving Seth Rich, a murdered Democratic National Committee (DNC) staffer who has been the subject of conspiracy theories involving WikiLeaks. But these conspiracy theories simply do not hold up under scrutiny.
Here are seven things you need to know about Rich&#8217;s murder.
1. Rich was <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3743880/Alone-bar-guzzling-beer-depressed-trouble-girlfriend-newly-hired-Clinton-campaign-staffer-Seth-Rich-refused-ride-home-staggered-shocking-death.html">murdered</a> on July 10 as he was walking home late at night. Prior to his murder, people noticed that Rich was &#8220;noticeably drunk&#8221; at his usual watering hole, Lou&#8217;s City Bar. He was offered a ride home but declined, stating that he was going to the Wonderland Ballroom bar, although nobody saw him there that night. Rich was found at 4:19 a.m. at a street corner with gunshot wounds and was eventually pronounced dead at the hospital. None of his possessions were taken.
2. The WikiLeaks conspiracy theories started when Julian Assange <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp7FkLBRpKg">implied</a> that Rich&#8217;s murder was connected. Assange brought up the murder on a Dutch news network, stating, &#8220;our sources face serious risks.&#8221; That was enough to spark a firestorm of conspiracy theories that Rich was murdered for handing over the DNC&#8217;s files to WikiLeaks.
3. New life was given to these conspiracy theories when a Fox report stated that there was supposedly evidence that Rich was corresponding with WikiLeaks. Rod Wheeler, a Fox News contributor and private investigator who had been working with the Rich family, stated on a local Fox station that it was <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/hold-fire-on-those-stories-about-seth-rich-the-slain-dnc-staffer/article/2623263">&#8220;confirmed&#8221;</a> that Rich was linked to WikiLeaks. A Fox News <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/murdered-dnc-staffer-seth-rich-had-sent-44000-internal-emails-to-wikileaks-report/article/2623186">report</a> later came out claiming that Rich gave 44,053 emails and 17,761 attachments from the DNC to Gavin MacFadyen, the American journalist and WikiLeaks director who passed away in October. 
4. The Rich-WikiLeaks story eventually unraveled upon further investigation. Wheeler eventually admitted to <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/16/media/seth-rich-family-response-claims-of-wikileaks-contact/">CNN</a> that he didn&#8217;t have any evidence to corroborate his prior claim that Rich was in contact with WikiLeaks, as he said that he had heard it from the reporter who wrote the story on Fox News. Additionally, a current and former FBI official told <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/dnc-staffer-s-murder-draws-fresh-conspiracy-theories-n760186">NBC News</a> that there were zero emails between Rich and WikiLeaks found on his laptop; in fact, the local D.C. police never gave it to the FBI.
The story unravels even further when taking into account reports that Wheeler was being paid by Ed Butowsky, a financial adviser who provides commentary to Fox News and Breitbart. Butowksy initially denied involvement to NBC News, but later admitted to CNN that he offered to pay the Rich family&#8217;s fees to investigate the murder of Seth Rich. Butowsky still claims that he has yet to pay anyone for it.
The notion that Rich handed over DNC files also doesn&#8217;t make any sense, as Los Angeles Times deputy editorial page editor Jon Healy <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ed-seth-rich-dnc-hack-20170517-story.html">wrote</a> in an op-ed that all evidence points to the DNC being hacked by &#8220;an external intruder,&#8221; which would explain how WikiLeaks obtained their emails. This would contradict the conspiracy theories that Rich went rogue against his former employer.
5. The Rich family is pushing back. They released a <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/murdered-dnc-staffer-seth-rich-had-sent-44000-internal-emails-to-wikileaks-report/article/2623186">statement</a> that read, &#8220;As we&#8217;ve seen through the past year of unsubstantiated claims, we see no facts, we have seen no evidence, we have been approached with no emails and only learned about this when contacted by the press. Even if tomorrow, an email was found, it is not a high enough bar of evidence to prove any interactions as emails can be altered and we&#8217;ve seen that those interested in pushing conspiracies will stop at nothing to do so.&#8221;
The statement also noted that Wheeler &#8220;was barred from speaking to press or anyone outside of law enforcement or the family unless explicitly authorized by the family&#8221; under his contract. When CNN pointed this out to Wheeler, he simply stated he would have to discuss it with the Rich family. 
The family&#8217;s spokesman, Brad Bauman, criticized Fox News for their report, telling CNN, &#8220;I think it&#8217;s important for everyone at Fox News to be careful with this information and how this story breaks because using the legacy of a murder victim in such an overtly political way is morally reprehensible.&#8221;
6. It is believed that Rich&#8217;s murder was due to a robbery gone bad. That&#8217;s what <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/murdered-dnc-staffer-seth-rich-had-sent-44000-internal-emails-to-wikileaks-report/article/2623186">the police think</a> and it&#8217;s the theory that makes the most sense. The Daily Wire has previously <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/8450/wikileaks-linked-dnc-analyst-seth-rich-what-aaron-bandler">explained</a>:
<blockquote>
The Bloomingdale area that Rich had been walking in at the time of his murder had been terrorized by a recent string of armed robberies. In fact, [Daily Mail reporter Alana] Goodman found that Rich&#8217;s murder occurred at a street corner where two other robberies occurred. Goodman described the corner as &#8220;a desolate-looking residential block shielded by new construction sites and notably absent of surveillance cameras.&#8221;
</blockquote>
The police have yet to find any leads on who murdered Rich.
7. In the end, the only thing that the new batch of conspiracy theories have accomplished is angering Rich&#8217;s family. The Washington Examiner&#8216;s T. Becket Adams wrote in a <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/hold-fire-on-those-stories-about-seth-rich-the-slain-dnc-staffer/article/2623263">column</a> that the Fox reports were &#8220;a hot hunk of hokum&#8221; that &#8220;have done nothing to answer some of the conspiracies surrounding Rich&#8217;s unsolved murder.&#8221;
&#8220;They have, however, done a great job of infuriating the victim&#8217;s still-grieving family,&#8221; Adams added. &#8220;Great work all around, fellas.&#8221;
Indeed, in this era of hyper-partisan, tribalism politics, there has been a disturbing trend among some on the Right to quickly jump to conclusions and promulgate conspiracy theories just because they are harmful to the Clintons and the DNC. The definition of being a conservative rests on a focus on facts, not rampant speculation that supports one&#8217;s biases. Perpetuating ludicrous conspiracy theories like this latest Rich-WikiLeaks one are the antithesis of conservatism and hand the leftist media ammo to discredit the Right at large.
But more importantly, this conspiracy theory has only worsened the anguish of the Rich family during an extraordinarily difficult time for them, which is, as Bauman put it, &#8220;morally reprehensible.&#8221; 
<a href="https://twitter.com/bandlersbanter">Follow Aaron Bandler on Twitter.</a>

7 Things You Need To Know About The Seth Rich Murder

WikiLeaks

Seth Rich, the DNC staffer who was murdered last July in Washington D.C., is now at the center of a conspiracy theory.
The theory goes that Rich wasn&#8217;t the victim of a &#8220;robbery gone wrong,&#8221; but that he was targeted because he had been leaking thousands of DNC emails to WikiLeaks.
Alex Seitz-Wald of <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/dnc-staffer-s-murder-draws-fresh-conspiracy-theories-n760186">NBC News</a> reports that a Texas businessman named Ed Butowsky allegedly financed a parallel investigation of the murder, asking the Rich family to hire private investigator, Rod Wheeler.
This is where things get interesting.
Wheeler broke some big news on Monday during an interview with <a href="http://www.fox5dc.com/news/local-news/254852337-story">Fox5</a>, claiming Seth Rich&#8217;s laptop contained correspondence between the deceased and WikiLeaks. Wheeler also believes that the police and the FBI are deliberately covering it up:
<blockquote>
&#8220;The police department nor the FBI have been forthcoming,&#8221; said Wheeler. &#8220;They haven&#8217;t been cooperating at all. I believe that the answer to solving his death lies on that computer, which I believe is either at the police department or either at the FBI. I have been told both.&#8221;
When we asked Wheeler if his sources have told him there is information that links Rich to Wikileaks, he said, &#8220;Absolutely. Yeah. That&#8217;s confirmed.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Another piece, this time from <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/05/16/slain-dnc-staffer-had-contact-with-wikileaks-investigator-says.html">Fox News</a> proper, claims that a &#8220;federal source&#8221; told the news outlet that &#8220;an FBI forensic report of Rich&#8217;s computer &#8212; generated within 96 hours after Rich&#8217;s murder &#8212; showed he made contact with WikiLeaks through Gavin MacFadyen, a now-deceased American investigative reporter, documentary filmmaker, and director of WikiLeaks who was living in London at the time&#8230;&#8221;
<blockquote>
&#8220;I have seen and read the emails between Seth Rich and WikiLeaks,&#8221; the federal investigator told Fox News, confirming the MacFadyen connection. He said the emails are in possession of the FBI, while the stalled case is in the hands of the Washington Police Department.
</blockquote>
The Fox News report adds:
<blockquote>
The federal investigator, who requested anonymity, said 44,053 emails and 17,761 attachments between Democratic National Committee leaders, spanning from January 2015 through late May 2016, were transferred from Rich to MacFadyen before May 21.
</blockquote>
In response to Wheeler&#8217;s allegations, the Rich family is <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/dnc-staffer-s-murder-draws-fresh-conspiracy-theories-n760186">pushing back</a>:
<blockquote>
&#8220;We are a family who is committed to facts, not fake evidence,&#8221; the family said in a statement earlier Tuesday. &#8220;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 press or anyone outside of law enforcement or the family unless explicitly authorized by the family.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Additionally, according to Seitz-Wald, two FBI officials categorically deny the reports that Rich&#8217;s computer was ever in possession of the agency, and another &#8220;law enforcement official with first-hand knowledge of Rich&#8217;s laptop&#8221; says the computer does not contain any DNC/WikiLeaks emails:
<blockquote>
&#8220;It never contained any e-mails related to WikiLeaks, and the FBI never had it,&#8221; the person said.
</blockquote>
The D.C. Metropolitan Police are also calling this a <a href="https://www.washingtonian.com/2017/05/16/seth-rich-family-fbi-cops-agree-fox-story-bogus/">bogus story</a>:
<blockquote>
&#8220;The assertions put forward by Mr. Wheeler are unfounded&#8230; The Metropolitan Police Department&#8217;s (MPD) Homicide Branch is actively investigating Mr. Rich&#8217;s murder and we continue to work with the family to bring closure to this case as we do with all homicide investigations.&#8221;
</blockquote>
In terms of credibility, it&#8217;s important to note that Rod Wheeler is the same man who appeared on The Bill O&#8217;Reilly Show in 2007, and <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2007/rod-wheeler-claims-o%E2%80%99reilly-factor-lesbian-gangs-are-raping-young-girls">said</a> there was a vast network of &#8220;pink pistol&#8221; toting lesbian gangs who were indoctrinating young children into homosexuality.
So there&#8217;s that.

The Confusing And Improbable Seth Rich Murder-Turned-WikiLeaks-Conspiracy-Theory Gets Even Weirder

On Monday evening, The Washington Post broke a story based on anonymous White House officials stating that President Trump had dumped highly classified information to the Russians in a White House meeting. The Left immediately jumped on the news without waiting for verification, and even as the White House denied it and launched into a campaign against &#8220;leakers.&#8221;
Every major mainstream media outlet in the country led with the report.
The same evening, Fox DC 5 reported that a private investigator with a shaky history, Rod Wheeler, had revealed that his investigation into the murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich &#8220;shows there was some degree of email exchange between Seth Rich and WikiLeaks. I do believe that the answers to who murdered Seth Rich sits on his computer on a shelf at the DC police or FBI headquarters.&#8221; Later that night, <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/05/16/slain-dnc-staffer-had-contact-with-wikileaks-investigator-says.html">Fox News</a> reported that an anonymous federal investigator &#8220;said 44,053 emails and 17,761 attachments between Democratic National Committee leaders, spanning from January 2015 through late May 2016, were transferred from Rich to [director of WikiLeaks Gavin] MacFadyen.&#8221; The family denied the veracity of the reports and slammed Wheeler for violating confidentiality, adding that he was paid by third party sources.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Seth Rich family spokesperson: &#8220;no evidence,&#8221; &#8220;no emails&#8221; suggesting Wikileaks links. Comes day after story claiming family PI found links <a href="https://t.co/vmp2oQpcG2">pic.twitter.com/vmp2oQpcG2</a>
&#8212; Alex Campbell (@alexcampbell) <a href="https://twitter.com/alexcampbell/status/864467454155780097">May 16, 2017</a></blockquote>
The FBI has apparently not been asked about the allegations.
Right-wing outlets chose to lead with the news.
Once again, we&#8217;ve seen how two news bubbles lead partisans to believe only what they want to believe.
If you&#8217;re on the Left, you likely didn&#8217;t wait to immediately leap to the worst possible conclusion about Trump&#8217;s meeting with the Russians. You likely didn&#8217;t even wait for the White House&#8217;s denials. And you likely ignored the Wheeler report because he&#8217;s a dicey quantity and the family denied his revelations.
If you&#8217;re on the Right, you likely believe that the Trump-revealed-classified-information story is &#8220;fake news,&#8221; a media gotcha, and yet more evidence of nefarious Obama holdovers in the intelligence community leaking to discredit the White House; you likely also believe that Rich was probably murdered for divulging information to WikiLeaks.
Both stories were based in large part on anonymous sourcing, and both were ripped for content garnered through &#8220;leaks&#8221;; both were denied by key actors. But anonymous sourcing allows you to choose what to believe, blaming leaks allows you to blame whom you want, and denials provide you cover for both.
Here&#8217;s where we now stand on both stories. The Trump administration is plagued by leaks, and that&#8217;s not a good thing &#8211; but the underlying facts about Trump&#8217;s communications with Russia are devastating if true, and Trump seems to have confirmed them. Meanwhile, we have nothing to confirm the Rich story yet, beyond the anonymous FBI investigator &#8211; and the family rejection of the story.
Both stories could be true; both could be false; one could be true, and the other false. But it&#8217;s worth checking your biases if you&#8217;re jumping to conclusions based on your own political predilections in looking at them.

Confirmation Bias, Anonymous Sources, And Leaks: What Do You Believe About Seth Rich And Trump’s Classified Blabbing?

Russia

Before anyone confuses me with someone who traffics in The-Clintons-Murdered-So-And-So conspiracy theories, I am not. I&#8217;m happy to Twitter-troll Hillary and her media over her &#8220;Parkinsons disease,&#8221; but when it comes to an actual crime, that is where my personal line is drawn. Nevertheless, this just-released Fox News report about the late Seth Rich and WikiLeaks, now confirmed by multiple sources, is a fascinating story that might help to explain a lot, especially a lot of what we are seeing in <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/05/16/slain-dnc-staffer-had-contact-with-wikileaks-investigator-says.html">the corrupt media regarding Russia</a>.
In July of 2016, Seth Rich was a high-ranking staffer at the Democrat National Committee and just 27 years-old, when he was murdered &#8212; at the height of the presidential campaign &#8212; in Washington DC. According to police, just a block or so from his home at 4:20 a.m., Rich was fatally shot in the back &#8212; twice. Even though nothing was taken from Rich, the DC police wrote off the murder as a botched robbery. Apparently, crime had been escalating in Rich&#8217;s Bloomingdale neighborhood.
The murder remains unsolved.
So far, so good. None of this to me is suspicious or even out of the ordinary. I&#8217;m just not prepared to believe the DC police are involved in a widespread cover-up to protect the Democrats or Hillary Clinton, especially in the age of New Media where a whistleblower can easily go around corrupted media outlets like The Washington Post and CNN, who I believe would cover-up a murder to protect Democrats and Hillary Clinton.
Why the Rich story matters has nothing to do with the tragic murder of a young man. 
Let us first, though, acknowledge that unlike every CNN, Washington Post and New York Times&#8216; &#8220;bombshell,&#8221; which are always based on a single anonymous source, this <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/05/16/slain-dnc-staffer-had-contact-with-wikileaks-investigator-says.html">bombshell from Fox News</a> has more than one source, including an on-the-record source.
<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/05/16/slain-dnc-staffer-had-contact-with-wikileaks-investigator-says.html">This is potentially big</a>:
<blockquote>
The Democratic National Committee staffer who was gunned down on July 10 on a Washington, D.C., street just steps from his home had leaked thousands of internal emails to WikiLeaks, law enforcement sources told Fox News.
A federal investigator who reviewed an FBI forensic report detailing the contents of DNC staffer Seth Rich&#8217;s computer generated within 96 hours after his murder, said Rich made contact with WikiLeaks through Gavin MacFadyen, a now-deceased American investigative reporter, documentary filmmaker, and director of WikiLeaks who was living in London at the time. &#8230;
&#8220;I have seen and read the emails between Seth Rich and Wikileaks,&#8221; the federal investigator told Fox News, confirming the MacFadyen connection. He said the emails are in possession of the FBI, while the stalled case is in the hands of the Washington Police Department. &#8230;
The federal investigator, who requested anonymity, said 44,053 emails and 17,761 attachments between Democratic National Committee leaders, spanning from January 2015 through late May 2016, were transferred from Rich to MacFadyen before May 21.
</blockquote>
I&#8217;m not yet anything close to prepared to assume Rich was murdered for any reason other than a botched mugging, but this is why the story matters&#8230;
1) If Rich is indeed the source of the DNC WikiLeaks document dump (his family <a href="https://twitter.com/alexcampbell/status/864467454155780097">denies it</a>), the entire conspiracy about Trump colluding with Russians goes completely out the window. Russia did not steal these emails, they were leaked by a DNC staffer who was probably furious (justifiably) over the DNC rigging the election against Bernie Sanders in favor of Hillary.
2) This would finally explain why the DNC refused to let the FBI investigate its servers as a means to track down the source of the leak.
3) If you read the story above closely, a federal investigator knows that Rich was the WikiLeaks source. If that is true, former-FBI Director James Comey had to have known it and, as has been suspected, was covering up evidence that would undermine the entire Russia-Trump hoax. In fact Fox&#8217;s on-the-record source, a private investigator working for the Rich family, openly claims the FBI is not being forthcoming.
Again, you do not need to go the full-Pelican Brief to understand the consequence of this potential bombshell. The conspiracy around the murder is pure speculation. The claim that the DC police have been ordered to stand down in their investigation is pure speculation (and has been denied <a href="https://twitter.com/fox5dc/status/864467332055412738">by the DC police</a>).
What has reportedly been found on Rich&#8217;s computer with respect to WikiLeaks is, however, a nuclear bombshell all on its own.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/NolteNC">@NolteNC</a>. Follow his Facebook Page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JohnNolteNC/?skip_nax_wizard=true">here</a>.

BOMBSHELL Report: Murdered DNC Staffer In Communication With WikiLeaks

Democratic National Committee

Seth Rich, the Democratic National Committee staffer who was murdered back in July, has been the subject of <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/8303/how-many-clinton-associates-have-died-over-years-aaron-bandler">conspiracy theories</a> after WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange suggested that Rich was the source of the <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/7727/5-revelations-leaked-dnc-emails-aaron-bandler">DNC email leaks</a>, implying that his murder was tied to the Clintons. Such conspiracy theories seemed far-fetched from the get-go given that the details surrounding to Rich&#8217;s death pointed to a robbery gone bad. Now, the UK Daily Mail&#8216;s Alana Goodman has conducted <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3743880/Alone-bar-guzzling-beer-depressed-trouble-girlfriend-newly-hired-Clinton-campaign-staffer-Seth-Rich-refused-ride-home-staggered-shocking-death.html">an extensively thorough investigation</a> into the series of events that occurred before Rich&#8217;s death; they certainly don&#8217;t lend to credence to the conspiracy theories.
That night, Rich had been sitting at his usual stool at the sports bar <a href="https://www.yelp.com/biz/lous-city-bar-washington">Lou&#8217;s City Bar</a> in the Columbia Heights area of Washington, D.C., and was reportedly by himself and depressed because he was &#8220;having problems with his girlfriend&#8221; Kelsey Mulka. Part-time manager Bernard Warren noticed that Rich was noticeably drunk, which Warren said &#8220;was very, very unusual for him.&#8221;
As Rich headed for the door, Warren offered to give Rich a ride home, but he declined, saying that he was headed for another bar in the Columbia Heights area called Wonderland Ballroom.
&#8220;I&#8217;ll always wonder if maybe if I had been more convincing with him&#8230;&#8221; Warren told the Daily Mail. &#8220;But he wanted to go someplace else and drink. That was for certain. And I wasn&#8217;t going to hang out. I had to get up the next morning for basketball.&#8221;
It is unknown if Rich made it to the <a href="http://www.thewonderlandballroom.com/">Wonderland Ballroom</a>, as no one recalled seeing him there. However, if he did make it, then the bar would have closed at around 2:30 am.
&#8220;It would have taken him approximately 30 minutes to walk the mile-long trek home to his Bloomingdale row-house &#8211; possibly longer if he had been drinking heavily,&#8221; writes Goodman. &#8220;That leaves as much as an hour and a half between the bars and the shooting unaccounted for.&#8221;
The Bloomingdale area that Rich had been walking in at the time of his murder had been terrorized by a recent string of armed robberies. In fact, Goodman found that Rich&#8217;s murder occurred at a street corner where two other robberies occurred. Goodman described the corner as &#8220;a desolate-looking residential block shielded by new construction sites and notably absent of surveillance cameras.&#8221;
Rich was shot in the back at that corner and was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He still had all of his possessions on him and was on a phone call with Mulka right before he was murdered.
Three men have been arrested for committing an armed robbery in the Bloomingdale area, and it&#8217;s not known if they&#8217;re connected to Rich&#8217;s murder.
It has also been <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3741754/Father-murdered-DNC-staffer-reveals-son-join-Hillary-Clinton-presidential-campaign-punching-hole-ugly-rumor-Wikileaks-source.html">reported</a> that Rich was going to work for Hillary Clinton&#8217;s presidential campaign before he was murdered. Rich had also written an email draft that read, &#8220;All my life, I&#8217;ve only wanted to make a difference so that I might be able to one day tell people that I mattered.&#8221; It was not clear whom Rich was planning on sending that email to.
A memorial was held for Rich at Lou&#8217;s City Bar, where a plaque commemorating Rich was set at his favorite stool.

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