Melissa Joskow / Media Matters

Earlier today the Department of Justice announced that special counsel Robert Mueller’s office had secured indictments against 12 Russian intelligence officers for the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Those indictments align with what intelligence agencies have long since concluded: The Russian government hacked these Democratic political groups and disseminated their internal correspondences.

The alternative, batshit-insane theory to how the DNC’s emails made it into the wild is that they were provided to WikiLeaks by DNC staffer Seth Rich, who was then murdered while walking home to his Washington, D.C., apartment as part of some sinister cover-up. This theory was, for a while, a favorite topic of Fox News’ Sean Hannity, who was heavily invested in portraying the deceased Rich as the source of the emails because, to his mind, that would debunk allegations that Donald Trump’s presidential campaign colluded with Russia.

Congress, investigate Seth Rich Murder! @JulianAssange made comments u need to listen to! If Seth was wiki source, no Trump/Russia collusion https://t.co/QPHZwypU34 — Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) May 22, 2017

The whole disgusting conspiracy theory was powered by a since-retracted Fox News report that had been quickly debunked by Rich’s family. But Hannity kept pounding away at the false story and lashing out at anyone who criticized him for his abominable exploitation of a murder victim. It wasn’t until advertisers started fleeing his program that Hannity finally relented. On his May 30, 2017, show he said: “Out of respect for the family's wishes, well, I decided for the time being not to discuss it unless there were further developments,” although he added, “I will not stop investigating.”