Cold Hard Facts

Breaking down the "spin" from the media to get down to the facts behind the story

Seth Rich: Coverup or Robbery Gone Bad?

12 Aug 2016 | Jon Winsley

The Facts

  • Seth Conrad Rich was a 27-year-old DNC staffer from Omaha, Nebraska. [1]
  • Rich was assaulted and then shot on July 10th 2016 at around 4:20am. His mother reported afterwards that his hands, knees, and face had been bruised, and that he had been shot twice in the back. However, he had not been robbed. [1] According to his father, his wallet, phone, and watch were still on his person. [2]
  • Officers patrolling in the area reported hearing gunshots. A witness living nearby reported hearing two gunshots at 4:19 AM. [1]
  • After the officers found him, Rich was taken to the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. No information has been released on the type of weapon used. [1]
  • The attack happened around the 2100 block of Flagler Pl NW, Washington DC. The police were looking into the possibility of whether Rich’s murder was related to a string of other robberies in the area. [3]

The Context

  • On Friday, July 22, 2016, WikiLeaks released 19,252 emails and 8,034 attachments leaked from the DNC. The source has not been positively identified, but there are strong suspicions that Russia was involved. [4]

  • In an interview on Tuesday, August 9th, 2016, Julian Assange alluded to Rich’s death as an example of the risks that whistleblowers take to reveal concerning material. He refused to confirm whether or not Rich actually was a source. From the transcript [5]:

    We investigated to understand what happened in that situation, with Seth Rich. I think it is a concerning situation. There is not a conclusion yet. We wouldn’t be willing to say a conclusion yet, but we are concerned about it. More importantly, a variety of WikiLeaks sources are concerned when that kind of thing happens.

  • After the interview, Wikileaks offered a $20,000 reward for information on Rich’s murder. [6]

The Analysis

  • There’s a great deal of speculation whether Seth Rich was actually a whistleblower, possibly even the one who leaked the trove of DNC emails. Wikileaks refuses to confirm or deny anything regarding suspected whistleblowers, per their usual policy. [5] Reddit users /u/MyKettleIsNotBlack, /u/BoSnoKnows, and /u/GringoClintonMiAmigo dug up connections between Rich and the Clintons [7], though it goes without saying that there was no smoking gun. There has been no evidence that Rich was discontent with or working against either the Clintons or the DNC in the time leading up to his death.
  • Keep in mind, too, that Wikileaks also has motive to sow confusion as to who may or may not really be a whistleblower. If, hypothetically, there really were a whistleblower in the DNC, setting up Seth Rich in this way might throw him/her some cover. Further, the threat of investigation into such suspicious deaths offers some measure of protection to future whistleblowers.
  • A conspiracy theory was briefly floated that Rich was on his way to a secret meeting with the FBI. [8] However, he told his girlfriend on the phone moments before he was shot that he was “just about” home. [2] This FBI theory did not hold up to scrutiny.

Conclusions

Further evidence may come to light, but at present - as interesting as this is - we do not have sufficient grounds to accuse anyone in the DNC of conspiracy to commit murder. Of course, if any new facts come to light, we’ll update our analysis.