You may recall that Seth Rich was a Democratic National Committee insider in 2016, who was murdered. Someone (not necessarily his family, as stated earlier) hired a private investigator, who has found evidence that, prior to his death, Seth Rich was in contact with WikiLeaks. As Fox 5 DC puts it:
Rod Wheeler, a private investigator hired by the Rich family [sic], suggests there is tangible evidence on Rich’s laptop that confirms he was communicating with WikiLeaks prior to his death.
Now, questions have been raised on why D.C. police, the lead agency on this murder investigation for the past ten months, have insisted this was a robbery gone bad when there appears to be no evidence to suggest that.
Wheeler, a former D.C. police homicide detective, is running a parallel investigation into Rich’s murder. He said he believes there is a cover-up and the police department has been told to back down from the investigation.
This matters to the “Russia hacked our election!” narrative. It undermines it. As I have mentioned previously: WikiLeaks has long stated that that their source for DNC emails was no one connected to the Russian government, and was someone whose description matches Seth Rich.
If Rich was indeed the DNC leaker – and if his murder had nothing to do with a “robbery gone bad” – then a disturbing question arises, of whether Rich’s murder could have been connected to his DNC leaking? As in, retribution by someone powerful?
I haven’t drawn a conclusion, but will keep an eye on this story.
UPDATE: This morning, Fox has more; but that includes the Rich family’s denial. Fox has been updating the article (Breitbart quotes an earlier version). At the time of this writing, the article says:
…[Rod Wheeler’s] WikiLeaks claim…was corroborated by a federal investigator who spoke to Fox News.
But a spokesman for Rich’s family on Tuesday said Wheeler was not authorized to speak for the family and called assertions Seth Rich sent emails to WikiLeaks “unsubstantiated”…
The family has been sensitive to speculation that Rich could have leaked emails damaging to the DNC…Wheeler and the federal investigator insist that there is evidence to back their claims.
An FBI forensic report of Rich’s computer — generated within 96 hours after Rich’s murder — showed he made contact with WikiLeaks through Gavin MacFadyen, a now-deceased American investigative reporter…
The federal investigator, who requested anonymity, said 44,053 emails and 17,761 attachments between Democratic National Committee leaders, spanning from January 2015 through late May 2016, were transferred from Rich to MacFadyen before May 21.
On July 22, just 12 days after Rich was killed, WikiLeaks published internal DNC emails that appeared to show top party officials conspired to stop Sen. Bernie Sanders…
WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange has stopped short of identifying Rich as the source…but has taken a keen interest in the case…“WikiLeaks has decided to issue a US$20k reward for information leading to conviction for the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich,” the organization announced.
Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department has no suspects and no substantial leads as to who the killer or killers may be, sources close to the investigation said.
It’s worth noting that Rich was killed in the “Bloomingdale” neighborhood, which is considered posh and low-crime.
UPDATE: Rod Wheeler undercuts his own story; but nonetheless insists that there is a Federal investigator who saw Rich’s laptop and told Wheeler what happened. Wheeler won’t name him.
What are we left with? Hearsay and anonymous sources; nothing proven, nor disproven.