2023-03-14 update: There is a rumor that the story was started by Seymour Hersh. If so, it is likely to be false.
2019-08-13 update: an NBC article from July 11, 2016:
“Worst nightmare,” Rich’s mother, Mary Rich, said by phone. … “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,” she said. “They took his life for literally no reason. They didn’t finish robbing him, they just took his life,” Mary Rich continued.
Recently, Fake News Media published allegations that Russia was behind the suspicions that Seth Rich leaked the DNC emails to WikiLeaks. That fact weighs in favor of these suspicions, and the conclusion that his murder was ordered by the DNC, if not by HRC herself. In a lawsuit, filed by his attorney two days ago, Ed Butowsky confirmed that the DNC emails showing DNC-Hillary collusion have been leaked by Seth Rich. His factual allegations are direct and detailed. It is unlikely that Ed Butowsky and his attorney would have made such allegations in a court filing without sufficient substantiation.
Thus, it is likely that Seth Rich copied and gave WikiLeaks the damning DNC emails, and was murdered on orders originating from the DNC, which was trying to prevent the documents impending transfer to WikiLeaks.
Watch this video from an interview with Ellen Ratner taken on November 9th, 2016, in which she confirms and everyone accepts that Julian Assange received emails from a DNC insider, not from Russia.
(H/t sundance). The video is on YouTube, and might disappear at any moment.
The DNC probably didn’t know when he transferred them. The DNC learnt of the upcoming leaks publication on June 12 or earlier. CrowdStrike might have identified the individual who copied the DNC emails from its Microsoft Exchange Server. On July 6, WikiLeaks sent to Guccifer 2.0 (i.e., CrowdStrike/DNC) a message, suggesting that it had not received the DNC documents yet (The Mueller Report, p. 45). Seth Rich was murdered early in the morning of July 10, 2016.
See the skeptical investigation on WikiLeaks. TMR is hopelessly confused about the identities of the leaker, Guccifer 2, and other impersonators, whom it collectively calls “GRU officers” (pp. 44-47). Besides prevention, the DNC also had a motive of retaliation. According to the leaked emails from Feb 22, 2015 (emphasis added):
Joel Benenson to John Podesta:
“I think we have to make examples now of people who have violated the trust of HRC and the rest of the team. People going forward need to know there are stiff consequences for leaking, self-promotion, unauthorized talking with the press. No one – literally no one talked to the press in either Obama campaign without clearing it with campaign brass.”
Podesta to Benenson:
“Agree. Happy to talk to the David’s. Call me crazy, but I think if we can survive the next month, it will be possible, maybe even straightforward to get our arms around this once there is an actual campaign. I’m definitely for making an example of a suspected leaker whether or not we have any real basis for it. [sic!]”
Robby Mook to Podesta, cc Benenson:
“I agree–when we have press staff, this will be MUCH easier. And I would love an example being made.”
This looks like a decision made in this email exchange. To make an example of doesn’t necessarily mean to murder, but firing a 27-year old staffer wouldn’t have been enough for the example, especially one that Mook would have loved.
The whole 50-page complaint in Butowsky v. Michael Gottlieb et al is worth reading. Few quotes (emphasis added, external quote marks aren’t used):
35. In 2015, the administration of President Barrack Obama began spying on
prominent Republican presidential candidates, as well as Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, in an effort to support Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. At that time, the Central Intelligence Agency (“CIA”) was headed by Director John Brennan, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) was under the effective control of its deputy director, Andrew McCabe. Mr. Brennan and Mr. McCabe are ruthless and unscrupulous Democratic partisans, and they were determined to destroy any candidate who might threaten the candidacy of Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Brennan even created a “working group”within the CIA to sabotage Mrs. Clinton’s political opponents, particularly Donald Trump.
The FBI Director James Comey was also a Democratic partisan, masquerading as a registered Republican. After he was fired, he removed the mask, and openly supported Amy Klobuchar, one of the most extremist Dem candidates.
38. … The CIA “working group” identified above was launched in June of 2016, and the Plaintiff alleges on information and belief that Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page were assigned to it from the outset.
41. Just as Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page realized on May 4, 2016 that they needed to
bury the MYE investigation into Mrs. Clinton quickly, the Clinton campaign and the
DNC recognized an opportunity to rewrite the narrative about the damaging emails that would soon be released to the public. Rather than acknowledge that a DNC employee was so appalled by the corruption he had witnessed inside the DNC and the Clinton campaign that he leaked emails to Wikileaks, the DNC and Clinton campaign decided they would instead blame the leaked emails on the Russian government, then blame Mr. Trump for colluding with the Russian government.
42. The DNC employee responsible for the leaks was Seth Rich, and he was
assisted by his brother Aaron. Mr. Butowsky does not know exactly when the DNC
figured out that Mr. Rich was the source of the leak. On July 10, 2016, however, Mr.
Rich was fatally shot while walking home in Washington, D.C., and the murder has not been solved. Mr. Butowsky does not know whether the murder is related to Mr. Rich’s role in leaking DNC emails.
43. Shortly after the murder, the interim DNC chair at the time, Donna Brazile,
reached out to Mr. McCabe and Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser for help in
dealing with the political consequences of the murder. Ms. Brazile knew suspicions
would soon arise, fairly or unfairly, that the murder was connected to the email leaks. D.C. police allowed the FBI to unlock Seth Rich’s electronic devices, and the FBI obtained data showing that Mr. Rich had indeed provided the DNC emails to Wikileaks. At Mr. McCabe’s direction, however, that information was kept secret with orders that it not be produced in response to any Freedom of Information Act request. For her part, Ms. Bowser directed D.C. police not to pursue any investigative avenues that might connect the murder to the email leaks. At her direction, local police blamed the murder on a “botched robbery” even though Mr. Rich’s watch, wallet, and other belongings were not removed from his body.
45. Mr. Butowsky stumbled into the RCH crosshairs after Ellen Ratner, a news
analyst for Fox News and the White House correspondent for Talk Media News,
contacted him in the Fall of 2016 about a meeting she had with Mr. Assange. Ms.
Ratner’s brother, the late Michael Ratner, was an attorney who had represented Mr. Assange. According to Ms. Ratner, she made a stop in London during a return flight from Berlin, and she met with Mr. Assange for approximately six hours in the Ecuadorean embassy. Ms. Ratner said Mr. Assange told her that Seth Rich and his brother, Aaron, were responsible for releasing the DNC emails to Wikileaks. Ms. Ratner said Mr. Assange wanted the information relayed to Seth’s parents, as it might explain the motive for Seth’s murder.
46. Upon her return to the United States, Ms. Ratner asked Mr. Butowsky to
contact the Rich family and relay the information from Mr. Assange, apparently because Ms. Ratner did not want her involvement to be made public. In the two months that followed, Mr. Butowsky did not attempt to contact the Rich family, but he grew increasingly frustrated as the DNC and #Resistance “journalists” blamed the Russian government for the email leak …
47. On December 17, 2016, at the instigation of Ms. Ratner, Mr. Butowsky finally
contacted Joel and Mary Rich, the parents of Seth, and he relayed the information about Ms. Ratner’s meeting with Mr. Assange. During that conversation, Mr. Rich told Mr. Butowsky that he already knew that his sons were involved in the DNC email leak, but he and his wife just wanted to know who murdered Seth. Mr. Rich said he was reluctant to go public with Seth’s and Aaron’s role in leaking the emails because “we don’t want anyone to think our sons were responsible for getting Trump elected.” Mr. Rich said he did not have enough money to hire a private investigator, so Mr. Butowsky offered to pay for one. Mr. Rich accepted the offer and thanked Mr. Butowsky in an email. …
50. On May 16, 2017, FoxNews.com published a story by Malia Zimmerman which claimed that Seth Rich had been involved in the DNC email leak.
52. On May 23, 2017, Fox News retracted the May 16, 2017 article, claiming that
the article did not meet its editorial standards. Fox News did not identify any errors in the article, and there were none. Within the network, rumors began to circulate that the story was killed by Sarah and Kathryn Murdoch, the left-leaning Hillary Clinton supporters and daughters-in-law of Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch. One month prior to the May 23, 2017 retraction, Sarah and Kathryn Murdoch were credited with driving out conservative Fox News host Bill O’Reilly. See Don Kaplan, “Rupert Murdoch’s sons’ progressive wives helped oust Bill O’Reilly from Fox News Channel,” New York Daily News, April 19, 2017 (https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/murdoch-sonsprogressive-wives-helped-oust-bill-o-reilly-article-1.3075872). Kathryn previously worked for the Clinton Climate Initiative, and her husband James was a donor to the Clinton Foundation.
Media Matters and Color of Change played main role in ousting Bill O’Reilly, apparently. Both are front groups of the “Shadow Democratic party.” Media Matters started as a subsidiary of the Center for American Progress, and its founder and leader David Brock is close to Hillary Clinton and John Podesta. It is likely that Media Matters also forced Fox News to issue that semi-retraction.
One of the defendants, allegedly participating in suppression of the Seth Rich story, is attorney Douglas Wigdor, described by the New York Times as Leading the Legal War Against Fox.
54. … Mr. Butowsky never had (and never has) met President Trump nor spoken with him. Although Mr. Butowsky knew people who worked in the Trump White House, he had actively supported Carly Fiorina in the Republican primary. After she dropped out of the race, he supported Marco Rubio and Chris Christie. …
56. Even though Fox News retracted its May 17, 2017 report by Malia
Zimmerman, local affiliate WTTG (a.k.a. “Fox 5 DC”) did not retract its report by Ms.
Marraco. Instead, WTTG updated its May 15, 2017 on May 17, 2017 report to prove
unequivocally that Mr. Wheeler was lying to other media outlets when he denied saying there was evidence connecting Seth Rich to the DNC leak. See Maria Marraco, Fox 5 DC (http://www.fox5dc.com/news/local-news/private-investigator-there-is-evidence-sethrich-contacted-wikileaks-prior-to-death)… [the link doesn’t work]
57. The website DebunkingRodWheelersClaims.com (now at DeBunkingRodWheelersClaims.net) was launched in November of 2017… The website also included audio of famed journalist Seymour “Sy” Hersh stating that he had confirmed that Seth Rich was responsible for leaking the DNC emails. According to Mr. Hersh, who was by no means a Republican or a Trump supporter, he could not find a media outlet willing to publish the Seth Rich story. In a separate phone call with Mr. Butowsky, Mr. Hersh said he obtained his information about Seth Rich from Mr. McCabe, the deputy FBI director.
59. In early March of 2017, Joel Rich informed Mr. Butowsky that he had
received a call from Defendant Bauman, and that Defendant Bauman said he had been “assigned” to the Rich family by the DNC. …
60. Under coercion from Mr. Bauman and the lawyer Defendants named in this
lawsuit, Joel Rich stopped speaking with Mr. Butowsky and the Rich family started
attacking Mr. Butowsky publicly (albeit not by name). Prior to the time of Mr. Bauman’s involvement, the Rich family acknowledged to friends and relatives that Seth and Aaron were involved in the DNC email leak, but then they suddenly changed their story. …
61. The Rich’s lawsuits against Mr. Butowsky (discussed below) are part of a
larger pattern. On April 20, 2018, the DNC filed a hare-brained, kamakaze lawsuit
alleging that President Trump colluded with the Russians to steal its emails, even though the DNC already knew that neither President Trump nor the Russians had anything to do with the hacking.
62. … While Mr. Bauman and the lawyer Defendants were playing offense against Mr. Butowsky by suing and defaming him, their governmental co-conspirators (e.g., Mr. McCabe, Mayor Bowser, and then-Police Chief Kathy Lanier) were playing defense. Mayor Bowser and Chief Lanier, for example, blocked city investigators from pursuing any information that might undermine the RCH narrative. … Mr. McCabe ordered FBI agents to hide all information connecting Seth Rich to Wikileaks, and to deny its existence in response to any FOIA requests.
84. More than a year after the issue was first raised, and despite repeated inquiries
from Plaintiff’s Counsel, no subpoenas have been issued to Wikileaks, Julian Assange, or Kim Dotcom [?] … If, however, Defendants Governski and Gottlieb [pro-Dem lawyers] issue a subpoena to Wikileaks on behalf of Aaron Rich, Wikileaks will likely construe that as a waiver of confidentiality, in which case the damning emails would finally be released. That’s the last thing they want, so they have reneged on their earlier statements about issuing their own subpoenas.
90. Notwithstanding the fact that Mr. McCabe was fired from the FBI on March
16, 2018 for lying to federal investigators, and not withstanding the fact that he is the
subject of at least two criminal investigations, Defendant CNN hired him as an on-air
commentator so he could continue promoting the RCH [Russian Collusion Hoax] on its programs.
Originally published on 2019-07-15. Minor update was on 2019-07-18. Link to the video was added on 2019-07-21.
Good article