From RationalWiki

“ ” It just won’t stop. The amount of pain and anguish this has caused us is unbearable. With every conspiratorial flare-up, we are forced to relive Seth’s murder and a small piece of us dies as more of Seth’s memory is torn away from us. —Seth Rich's parents on these conspiracy theories.[1]

Seth Conrad Rich (January 3, 1989 – July 10, 2016) was an American campaign worker for the Democratic National Committee whose unsolved murder in 2016 has led to various rather "colorful" conspiracy theories. The most common one claims that Rich was one of WikiLeaks' sources in a large leak of Hillary Clinton-related emails, and that as a result he was murdered on the orders of the Clinton family.[2]

Seth Rich's parents have begged these wingnuts to stop spreading lies about their son's death.[1]

The facts [ edit ]

On Sunday, 10 July 2016, Rich was shot about a block from his apartment in the Bloomingdale neighborhood in Washington, DC.[3]

Earlier that night, he was in Columbia Heights, at a sports pub, 1.8 miles (2.9 km) from his apartment. He left the bar between 1:30 and 1:45 am.[4] Police were alerted to gunfire at 4:20 am by an automated gunfire locator.[5] Police officers found Rich with multiple gunshot wounds.[6] He was in a conscious and breathing state.[6] He was transported to a nearby hospital where he later died.[7] Police have said he died from two shots in the back in what may have been an attempted robbery, noting that the neighborhood had been recently plagued by robberies. Strangely, however, they found his wallet, credit cards, and cellphone on his body.[3]

According to Rich's mother:

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... They didn't finish robbing him, they just took his life.[8]

The murder remains unsolved.[9]

The theories [ edit ]

Relating to his death [ edit ]

Claim The explanation that he was killed in a robbery gone wrong is false because nothing was stolen.[10] Response This theory seems to suggest that when a robbery goes wrong and a person is shot, then the robber will always steal something first instead of immediately fleeing the scene. Considering the speed in which police or witnesses could have arrived on the scene, it makes sense that the shooter would immediately flee.[11] Stealing from Rich after shooting him would have also provided forensic evidence that would be used to implicate the shooter.[12]

Claim Hillary Clinton hired a hitman to assassinate Rich.[13][14][15][16] Response This absurd claim is exclusively believable to those who buy into the "Clinton body count" conspiracy.[17] Since they falsely believe Clinton has done this before, then this theory seems plausible even though there is not a shred of evidence supporting it. When examining this theory in detail, it completely falls apart. If Clinton, or somebody else, had hired a professional hitman then they would make sure Rich died immediately, and not later on in hospital.[18] It is highly unlikely a hitman would leave the scene of the crime with their victim still alive[18] and in a conscious and breathing state.[6] Clinton also had no motive to kill Rich. In order for this theory to make sense, Clinton would need to have known that Rich was the leaker.[note 1] After she discovered this, she would need to have decided that the best course of action would be to risk her entire campaign, reputation and freedom in hiring a hitman to kill Rich and then covering it up afterwards. It makes no sense that she would come to that conclusion rather than exercising any of the countless legal methods (e.g. naming and shaming) to discipline Rich.

Claim In an email, John Podesta says he is "definitely for making an example of a suspected leaker whether or not we have any real basis for it."[19] This gives credibility to the theory that Rich was assassinated.[20][21][22] Response This is a classic example of quote mining. The email in question is from February 2015, more than a year before both Rich's death and the DNC leaks.[19] It was referring to an article in The Washington Post concerning the branding of Hillary Clinton.[23][24] Podesta was not a fan of the article and suspected that an insider had leaked information to reporters.[24] In this context, his email had nothing to do with the DNC and was not in any way suggesting that leakers should be murdered.[24] Even actual killers probably do not discuss murdering people on their work email.

Claim Imran Awan [note 2] was partying with Seth Rich on the night of his murder.[25][26] There is a link between Awan and Rich's death,[27] and Awan might have murdered him.[28][29][30] Response The supposed evidence that they were partying together on the night of Rich's murder is a group photo which includes Rich and a man who conspiracy theorists claim is Imran Awan.[31][32][33] Firstly, the photo was not from the night of Rich's murder. It was uploaded on 22 April 2015, more than a year before Rich's death.[34] On top of that, the man in the photograph is clearly not Imran Awan. When comparing the supposed picture of Awan with a real picture of him, it is undeniable that they are two different people.[note 3] The man has since been identified as Miguel Huerta.[35] This theory seemed to have gained traction due to a combination of the cross-race effect and many people being unaware of Awan's real appearance. The claim that Awan is a suspect in Rich's murder is based entirely on this false picture of him. Therefore, this theory has no basis in fact.

Claim Donna Brazile knows Seth Rich was murdered by the Clintons.[36] Response In her book, Brazile speculated that there could be other motivations behind Rich's killing, but never suggested the Clintons or DNC were involved.[36] Brazile wrote that she feared for her life, placed surveillance cameras in her home and closed the blinds in her office so she could not be seen by a sniper.[36][37][note 4] Brazile was concerned that Rich's death may have been linked to Russia ("with all I knew now about the Russians’ hacking, I could not help but wonder if they had played some part in his unsolved murder"), racial tension ("racial tensions were high that summer and I worried that he was murdered for being white on the wrong side of town") or "someone who had it out for the Democrats".[36][38] She has described the idea that Rich was murdered by the DNC for leaking to WikiLeaks as a "baseless conspiracy theory".[36][39]

Relating to WikiLeaks [ edit ]

Claim Rich, not Russia, was responsible for the 2016 Democratic National Committee email leak .[40][41] Response There is no evidence for this and it is highly unlikely since Rich had never shown any prowess at hacking and was not good with computers.[10][42] Additionally, his parents have said that his low-level job did not grant him access to the kinds of emails that people are claiming.[10][43]

Claim Both Julian Assange[44][45] and WikiLeaks[46][47] have indicated that Seth Rich was their source.[48] Why would WikiLeaks offer a reward for information on Rich's murderer if he was not their source?[49][50] Response It is true that Assange and WikiLeaks both hinted that Rich was their leaker.[note 5] However, this only proves that they want people to believe their source was Rich, whether or not it is actually true. This could be because he is the leaker or it could be in order to distract attention away from their actual source.[51] If Rich had actually been the source, then the behaviour of Assange and WikiLeaks would make little sense.[52] How is Assange protecting the anonymity of his source by strongly hinting at his identity? What benefit is there in indirectly indicating, in such a transparent way, that Rich was the leaker? However, assuming that Russia is the source, then their behaviour does make sense.[53] They would either create or perpetuate alternative theories in order to divert attention from their real source.[53] So logically they would use the Rich theory as a distraction from their actual source. This discredits the Russia investigation and downplays their links to Russia. It has also been claimed that Assange is trustworthy since he has never been proven to be a liar,[54] but that is demonstrably false.[55][56]

Claim There is evidence on Rich's laptop of communication with WikiLeaks.[57] Response The source of this claim was Rod Wheeler (and an anonymous federal investigator), during a Fox News report in May 2017.[58] According to Fox, an anonymous federal investigator claimed the FBI were in possession of emails between Rich and WikiLeaks.[58] However, a law enforcement official has reported that DC police examined Rich's laptop and found it "never contained any e-mails related to WikiLeaks and the FBI never had it."[58] FBI sources have said the bureau is not investigating the murder and Washington police never gave them Rich's laptop.[59][60] In August 2017, Fox News was sued by Wheeler.[58] According to Wheeler, he believed he was giving viewers a preview of the Fox News story, and a Fox reporter had told him they had learned about the source connecting Rich with WikiLeaks.[10] Wheeler's lawsuit suggests the story was an attempt to discredit theories that Russia was responsible for the DNC leaks.[58][61] Wheeler has since admitted that he had never seen Rich's computer and never talked with the federal investigator.[62] Shortly after its initial broadcast, Fox News retracted the story for not meeting the "high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for our reporting."[58]

Claim Kim Dotcom said he knew Seth Rich and knew he was the WikiLeaks source since Dotcom was also involved.[63] Response So far, he has never presented any evidence verifying these claims, so they are simply baseless rumours.[24] Dotcom's credibility is also questionable since he first commented on Seth Rich publicly in May 2017,[64] 10 months after Rich was killed. If he really had information, why would he hold onto it for so long? He has also been accused of money laundering, racketeering and wire fraud by the US Department of Justice.[65] Dotcom currently resides in New Zealand and is fighting attempts to be extradited to the US.[66] Further proving himself an unreliable source, Dotcom posted an obviously fake FBI document relating to Seth Rich that he later admitted was not authentic.[67][68]

Claim Rich has a motive for leaking. He was a disgruntled Bernie Sanders supporter[69] who was disgusted by the corruption of the DNC.[70] Response The evidence suggests quite the opposite. Before his death, Rich was planning to move to Brooklyn in order to work for the Clinton campaign.[42][61] Besides, Rich had no access to the relevant emails so he would not have the opportunity to be outraged at any corruption that would supposedly motivate him. There would need to be evidence he was aware of any corruption, and such evidence has never materialised. The idea he was a Sanders supporter is based on a Reddit account called "pandas4bernie"[note 6] that became inactive around the time he died.[42] However, the people behind "pandas4bernie" have denied Rich was connected to their Reddit.[42]

Claim Brad Bauman, who is officially Seth Rich's family spokesman, is actually a DNC handler assigned to the Rich family.[71] Bauman is clearly trying to prevent the truth from getting out.[72][73] Response According to journalist David Weigel, the DNC had no role in hiring Bauman.[74] Seth Rich's family had asked some of his best friends who could help them with the media and they suggested Bauman.[24] Bauman has neither worked for the DNC or been paid by them.[24] The source that the DNC assigned Bauman to the Rich family appears to be Ed Butowsky in an article on WND.[75] Butowsky claimed Rich's father said Bauman was assigned to them.[76][77] Not only is this just gossip, but Butowsky has demonstrated himself to be untrustworthy due to his involvement in a retracted Fox News story about Seth Rich.[78] Bauman is certainly not trying to prevent the truth from getting out (quite the opposite). Bauman is simply, and unsurprisingly, fed up with the conspiracy theorists and has been quite scathing in his opinion of them:

Anyone who continues to push this fake news story after it was so thoroughly debunked is proving to the world they have a transparent political agenda or are a sociopath.[79]

Claim If Rich is the leaker, the United States can no longer blame Russia, and any Russian investigation is unnecessary.[24][100] Response Even if Rich was responsible for one batch of leaks, Russia has been implicated in three separate hackings. There are Russian fingerprints on the DNC email leak , DCCC cyber attacks and Podesta emails .[10][24]

The conspiracy theorists [ edit ]

“ ” The people pushing this conspiracy theory seem to be, exclusively, people acting either; on behalf of the Russian government, far-right wingers, people on the alt-right, Trump supporters, or people who just hate Hillary Clinton. —David Pakman[101]

Fox News and "alternative" media [ edit ]

In a rare acknowledgment that it was wrong, Fox News issued a retraction on May 23rd 2017 regarding its conspiracy mongering.[102][103] Sean Hannity, one of the main agitators of this conspiracy theory at Fox, did not back down, stating "All you in the liberal media — I am not Fox.com or FoxNews.com. I retracted nothing."[103]

Breitbart.com, InfoWars, WND and Globalresearch have published several articles supporting the conspiracy theories.[75][104][105][106][107]

WikiLeaks [ edit ]

Julian Assange said on Dutch television:

Whistleblowers go to significant efforts to get us material, and often very significant risks, as a 27-year-old, works for the DNC, was shot in the back, murdered just a few weeks ago for unknown reasons as he was walking down the street in Washington.[108]

WikiLeaks has offered a cash reward of $20,000 for "information leading to conviction for the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich."[109]

Russian government [ edit ]

Russian propaganda outlets RT[110][111] and Sputnik [112][113] fed into the conspiracy theories.[114][104] RT aired a debate about Seth Rich's murder with three invited guests; Hank Sheinkopf, H.A. Goodman and Alex Christoforou.[115][note 8] Only Sheinkopf did not agree with the conspiracy theories.

In May 2017, the Russian embassy in London tweeted that Rich was the informant for WikiLeaks.[104][116][117]

According to Salon:

Spreading word of the theory has also proven attractive to Russian state-owned media outlets. According to Google as of this writing, Rich’s death has been mentioned on 148 pages from Sputnik News, a propaganda site modeled after BuzzFeed. RT, Sputnik’s television-oriented counterpart, has run 53 stories mentioning Rich.[118]

Clint Watts explained Russia's motivation:

There are several facets to this — [Russian agents] want to push back on the idea, particularly among Trump supporters, that they hacked into the DNC. The way to do that is to put forward this Seth Rich scenario that the information didn’t come form [sic] Russian hackers, it came from an [inside] leak.

It rallies Trump’s base, which they have already influenced significantly over the last two years in the U.S. and foments conspiracy theories. And it mirrors what Trump says. Trump denies the findings of the intelligence agencies that Russia did hack into the DNC. [Russian agents] want that to go away as much as possible.[104]

List of exploitive people [ edit ]

See also [ edit ]

Vince Foster – another suicide turned into a conspiracy theory back in the days of Slick Willie’s presidency.

Notes [ edit ]