A lot has been made of the Seth Rich conspiracy theory lately. Fox News host Sean Hannity’s credibility has been called into question for even questioning the narrative surrounding the untimely death of the DNC staffer. Recently PBS Newshour spent some time attempting to discredit the theory, blaming “fake news” for making a story out of nothing.

PBS went on to say that the Seth Rich story has been blown up in an attempt to draw attention away from the “Russian collusion” investigation. Online forums like Reddit and 4Chan are spreading fake news, trying to show that it was Seth Rich who leaks DNC emails to Wikileaks, not Russian hackers.

What PBD failed to mention was that neither the Seth Rich story, nor the Russian collusion story, have yielded any evidence. Russian collusion has been investigated since before the 2016 election was even held, and that investigation has not produced any evidence for a case against Donald Trump’s campaign. In contrast, the murder of Rich has not been formally investigated by either the D.C. police or the FBI. It is the lack of attention that formal investigators gave to Rich’s murder that has fueled the conspiracy theory.

Unlike the Seth Rich story, Russian collusion is rarely labeled in the same way. The term “conspiracy theory”, which was coined by the CIA, has been used to shut down anyone who doesn’t accept the official narrative put out by the government. What really is a conspiracy theory? Quite simply, it is a theory that two or more people conspired. Let’s remember that until proven, many conspiracies remained only “theories”. The Catholic church conspiring to cover up priests molesting kids was only a “theory” until it was finally shown to be true.

Using the actual definition of “conspiracy theory”, are not both the Seth Rich story and the Russian collusion story merely theories? Neither has been proven. Both attract attention from people who almost want a certain story to be revealed. Hannity wants there to have been a coverup of Rich’s murder. Liberals want there to be proven collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

We’re now left with an interesting question: Which conspiracy theory holds more merit?

Did Russia collude with the Donald Trump campaign? Despite a 6+ month long investigation, no formal charges have been brought upon any member of the Trump campaign or his transition team. A number people have been named as being a part of an investigation, but none of them have been brought up on charges.

In January the New York Times named three Trump campaign advisors, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and Carter Page as being investigated by the FBI. None of these men have been allowed to testify before either the House or Senate intelligence committees.

However, national security advisor Michael Flynn was forced to resign after it was confirmed that he had had conversations with a number of Russian diplomats. Attorney general Jeff Sessions was forces to recuse himself from the proceedings of the investigation after it was learned that he had had conversations with a Russian diplomat as well. The conversations did not appear to be “collusion”, but just the mere conversations were enough for these men to either resign or recuse themselves. Clearly, they do not want there to be any speculation about possible Russian collusion.

That said, since the investigation started, there have been a number of hearings in which heads of the NSA, FBI, and CIA have all testified that Russia DID try to influence the election by pushing fake news stories on the internet. RT (short for “Russia Today”) has been labeled Russian propaganda. The infamous hacker Guccifer 2.0 has been named as “the” Russian hacker who leaked emails to Wikileaks. However, no evidence has been made public, leaving us just to take the intelligence community at their word, because, you know, its the intelligence community. They never lie. (Sarcasm.)

Wikileaks has been called a hostile intelligence agency that colluded with Russia, yet Wikileaks founder Julian Assange denies these claims. Even after months of investigating and testifying, there has yet to be any evidence made public that the Trump campaign worked with Russia to influence the results of the election. There just hasn’t been any hard evidence to come out. Some interesting ties between members of his administration and Russia? Maybe. Conversations are about all we have at this point, none of it proving there was collusion.

Seth Rich’s murder was picked up by the online community heavily after Assange gave an interview in which he mentioned Rich by name.

“Whistleblowers go to significant efforts, and often very significant risks, to get us material. There’s a 27 year old that works for the DNC who was shot in the back, murdered, just a few weeks ago for unknown reasons…”

The interview responds, “That was just a robbery, wasn’t it?” Assange quickly says, “No.” When he said “no”, the internet erupted. Assange has never actually said that Rich was a Wikileaks source, but the implication was there. When he said, “we don’t comment on who our sources are”, it left the door open for any number of conspiracy theories. Whether this was Assange’s intention or not is up to anyone’s judgement.

The story was interesting for a while, but nothing really came of it until a private investigator got involved. When that investigator went on Fox News and claimed that sources within the FBI confirmed that Rich had ties to Wikileaks, all hell broke loose. The family of Rich said that it was false, Sean Hannity said he wanted the truth, and the left labeled the entire story as “fake news”. Now sponsors are pulling their advertising from Sean’s show. What is going on?

All of this plays into the Rich murder being a great conspiracy theory. The fact that it has had far less investigation, especially from formal law enforcement, means that the theories can keep on coming. Contrast that with all of the formal investigations into Russian ties to Trump, which have amounted to nothing, and yet is reported on as if it is true, and we have two simultaneous conspiracy theories going on at the same time. Alex Jones must be loving life right now!

Russia-Trump conspiracy theory: Been investigated for months without any firm evidence being released to the press. The press says “Russia colluded with Trump”.

Seth Rich conspiracy theory: Pushed under the rug with limited formal investigation. No evidence has been released to the press. The press says “It’s just a conspiracy theory.”

Gotta love the times we live in!

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