As promised over the weekend, Kim Dotcom has delivered his official 'statement' on the Seth Rich murder. Unfortunately, it's a bit light on the details and more of a teaser along with a promise to disclose full details of his relationship with Seth Rich to Special Counsel Mueller in return for safe passage to and from the United States.

#SethRich was a hero#SethRich changed history#SethRich exposed the corrupt

Here is my statement > https://t.co/ODCOqaA6Q1 — Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) May 23, 2017

Here is the full statement as posted to Kim Dotcom's website:

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. “He wanted to change that from the inside.” 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.

Early reaction from the Twittersphere is disappointment:

.@KimDotCom on #SethRich ????



A bit disingenuous to suggest evidence'd be revealed but here's hoping he'll have a good meet w US Investigators pic.twitter.com/wWeHIYkNOc — Zach (@zachhaller) May 23, 2017

Meanwhile, after Fox News originally reported that anonymous FBI sources had confirmed to them that Seth Rich was WikiLeaks' source for the DNC leaks, they have just published the following retraction saying the article "was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting."

"On May 16, a story was posted on the Fox News website on the investigation into the 2016 murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich. The article 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. We will continue to investigate this story and will provide updates as warranted."

Fox News has just retracted its story on the Seth Rich conspiracy theory. Will Hannity follow? https://t.co/JBEFcjUOWe pic.twitter.com/9zXtjyMPft — Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) May 23, 2017

Of course, one can only wonder how many MSNBC, CNN, Washington Post and New York Times articles would have to be retracted if they were subjected to the same level of "editorial scrutiny."

* * *

For those who missed it, here is some background on the lead up to today's Kim Dotcom announcement:

Last week, Fox News dropped a bombshell report officially confirming, via anonymous FBI sources, what many had suspected for quite some time, that murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich was the WikiLeaks source for leaks which proved that the DNC was intentionally undermining the campaign of Bernie Sanders. In addition to exposing the corruption of the DNC, the leaks cost Debbie Wasserman Shcultz her job as Chairwoman.

Of course, if it's true that WikiLeaks' emails came from a DNC insider it would end the "Russian hacking" narrative that has been perpetuated by Democrats and the mainstream media for the past several months. Moreover, it would corroborate the one confirmation that Julian Assange has offered regarding his source, namely that it was "not a state actor."

Meanwhile, the plot thickened a little more over the weekend when Kim Dotcom confirmed via Twitter that he was working with Seth Rich to get leaked emails to WikiLeaks.

I knew Seth Rich. I know he was the @Wikileaks source. I was involved. https://t.co/MbGQteHhZM — Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) May 20, 2017

Which was followed up by the following posts on 4Chan’s /pol/ subgroup that high-ranking current and former Democratic Party officials are terrified of the Seth Rich murder investigation.

“Anons, I work in D.C. I know for certain that the Seth Rich case has scared the shit out of certain high ranking current and former Democratic Party officials. This is the reason why they have backed away from impeachment talk. They know the smoking gun is out there, and they’re terrified you will find it, because when you do it will bring the entire DNC, along with a couple of very big name politicians. It appears that certain DNC thugs were not thorough enough when it came time to cover their tracks. Podesta saying he wanted to “make an example of the leaker” is a huge smoking gun.”

The post went on to claim that a "smoking gun in this case is out of the hands of the conspirators" which has resulted in near "open panic" in DC circles.

“The behavior is near open panic. To even mention this name in D.C. Circles [sic] will bring you under automatic scrutiny. To even admit that you have knowledge of this story puts you in immediate danger. If there was no smoke there would be no fire. I have never, in my 20 years of working in D.C. Seen [sic] such a panicked reaction from anyone. I have strong reason to believe that the smoking gun in this case is out o [sic] the hands of the conspirators, and will be discovered by anon. I know for certain that Podesta is deeply concerned. He’s been receiving anonymous calls and emails from people saying they know the truth. Same with Hillary.”

And here is the original tweet:

An Anon working in DC says that he's seeing people in a panic like never before about #SethRich.



They know their about to be exposed. pic.twitter.com/wn9FiJ8ZrV — /pol/ News Forever (@polNewsForever) May 21, 2017

Meanwhile, Kim Dotcom has promised more information will be released on his interaction with Seth Rich by tomorrow.

I'm meeting my legal team on Monday. I will issue a statement about #SethRich on Tuesday. Please be patient. This needs to be done properly. — Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) May 20, 2017

This raises several questions. First, if Kim Dotcom knew that Seth Rich was, in fact, the WikiLeaks source, why is he just now coming forward with such information? Second, while Seth Rich may explain the DNC leaks we still don't know who is responsible for the "Podesta Files" which we're certain will continue to be attributed to "Russian hackers."

Which leads to the most improtant queistion of all: is this all just another fake news diversion, or is there more to the Seth Rich murder?