Kim Dotcom, a New Zealand-based hacker, told Fox anchor Sean Hannity he had evidence to support the Seth Rich conspiracy — and then reportedly tried to hack into Rich’s email.

An in-depth Washington Post story by Dave Weigel, who has been tirelessly documenting the conspiracy that slain DNC staffer Seth Rich was killed because of his contacts with Wikileaks, reports that Rich’s Gmail account, now managed by his father, this week received an email from Mega.com, the website founded by Dotcom:

According to experts and Rich’s family, the emailed invitation from [email protected] appeared to be an attempt to gain access to Rich’s email. Joel Rich, who maintains his late son’s Gmail account, did not click the link. Meanwhile, Dotcom was promising on Twitter to prove that the younger Rich had been in contact with WikiLeaks — and Fox News host Sean Hannity was telling his 2.37 million Twitter followers to be ready for a revelation.

Hannity had been engaged in a Twitter conversation with Dotcom, and invited the convicted hacker to come on his show after he claimed to have evidence of contact between Rich and Wikileaks.

Dotcom, who this week consistently promoted forthcoming revelations about the case, issued a statement on his website Tuesday, that contained no new information. He also said he would no longer be speaking publicly about the story.

From Weigel:

The latest revelation — that a hacker from New Zealand may have been trying as recently as this week to hack into Rich’s email — offered fresh evidence that the conspiracy theory is false. Dotcom, it seemed, may have been willing to create a fake archive of emails from Rich to “prove” his role in the DNC hack.

So it appears that Dotcom claimed to have evidence of contact between Seth Rich and Wikileaks, and then attempted to hack into Rich’s email in order to gather that evidence.

It is likely that Dotcom planned to forge illicit emails between Rich and Wikileaks, and release both real and forged emails together. When he failed to access the Gmail account, he issued a statement with no new information and stated he would no longer talk about the case.

Hannity too, announced he will no longer promote the story on his Tuesday night broadcast, “out of respect for the family’s wishes.”

Of course, neither Dotcom nor Hannity has issued an apology, or admitted the conspiracy is completely manufactured, meaning the rumors — as well as the family’s nightmare — will likely continue.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Aidan McLaughlin (@aidnmclaughlin) on Twitter

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