Who Is Seth Rich? New Details About The Unsolved Murder Of The DNC Staffer
His murder remains unsolved.
Since the election of Donald Trump, Republicans have been big on using the phrase “fake news.” But while they are so opposed to the truth, especially when it comes from reputable sources (no, InfoWars and Breitbart are not reputable), they seem to not care too much about REAL fake news. This is evident by the spreading of false information, particularly in the case of Seth Rich.
Who is Seth Rich? In 2016, Rich was killed in Washington, D.C., from gunshot wounds to the back. Police suspect he was the victim of an attempted robbery, though his murderers have not been captured or charged.
Conspiracy theories perpetrated by Sean Hannity, Julian Assange, and right-wing media claimed Rich, who was an employee for the Democratic National Convention, was involved with the leaked DNC emails. These theories have been widely contradicted by law enforcement and the U.S. intelligence community.
And with the redacted Mueller report essentially debunking the “fake news,” right-wingers have gone silent in response. Not surprising. The report says that Russia, not Rich, stole the emails and gave them to WikiLeaks.
How did these conspiracy theories even start?
Though they began 24 hours after his death, they spread about a month later, after Assange suggested on Dutch television that Rich was the source of the emails he leaked. Afterward, segments ran on Fox News, claiming he had “contact with WikiLeaks,” though they later retracted their story.
But on Hannity’s nightly show, he constantly ran footage and suggested Rich was involved. He said, “Now, if Rich in fact was WikiLeaks’ source for the DNC email leaks, it would confirm Russia was not involved. Remember, WikiLeaks have not been wrong in 11 years. They’ve not been proven to get one fact wrong that they have published.”
Well, they haven’t gotten one fact wrong ... except this one.
The Mueller report confirmed that Rich is not linked to the hack at all and detailed how “Russian intelligence service units 26165 and 74455 employed sophisticated malware technology and rented computers located all over the world to extract huge amounts of stolen data, including opposition research, strategy memos and fundraising documents.”
The report itself said, “Beginning in the summer of 2016, Assange and WikiLeaks made a number of statements about Seth Rich, a former DNC staff member who was killed in July 2016. The statements about Rich implied falsely that he had been the source of the stolen DNC emails.”
For Rich’s family, they feel some sort of relief, though they haven’t stopped looking for justice for Seth.
After Fox News ran their unsupported segment and theories, Rich’s parents demanded a retraction and apology, and sent a cease and desist letter to the “investigator” the network used. They issued a redaction, but offered no apology, in true Fox News form. The Rich family, in turn, sued the network, though their suit was dismissed.
Says Joel and Mary Rich, “We appreciate that the facts included in the Mueller report confirm what we have said all along: Seth had nothing to do with taking DNC emails or WikiLeaks. Hopefully this will put to bed the harmful conspiracy theories about our son.”
His brother, Aaron Rich, also said, “The special counsel has now provided hard facts that demonstrate this conspiracy is false. I hope that the people who pushed, fueled, spread, ran headlines, articles, interviews, talk and opinion shows or in any way used my family’s tragedy to advance their political agendas — despite our pleas that what they were saying was not based on any facts — will take responsibility for the unimaginable pain they have caused us.”
Rich should be remembered for his character, not an attempt by right-wing media to assassinate his character and use his death for their own political agendas.
Samantha Maffucci is an editor for YourTango who focuses on writing trending news and entertainment pieces. In her free time, you can find her obsessing about cats, wine, and all things Vanderpump Rules.