The Lie at the Heart of the "Russian Collusion" Hoax Is Unfolding as the Truth Comes Out: Seth Rich Stole the DNC Emails in 2016, NOT the Russians
The strongest indication that Seth Rich leaked the DNC and Podesta emails to WikiLeaks comes from Julian Assange himself. In interview after interview, he has insisted that Russia had nothing to do with the stolen Democrats’ emails that WikiLeaks published in 2016. Now, as Texas Judge Amos L. Mazzant has ordered the FBI must disclose the information on Seth Rich’s work laptop, Julian Assange’s legal team has begun leaking the information that Seth Rich, not the Russians, was the person who stole the DNC emails in 2016, not the Russians. This forms the backdrop as Assange will face two High Court judges over two days on Feb. 20-21, 2024 in London in what will likely be his last appeal against being extradited to the United States to face charges of violating the World War I Espionage Act.
About all the Washington Police Department has released with certainty is that Rich was shot to death in the Bloomingdale section of Washington, D.C., in the early hours of Sunday, July 10, 2016. To date, the Washington police have refused to release any investigative report or autopsy that precisely describes his wound. It appears that there are some two and a half hours unaccounted for between 1:15 a.m., when Rich left a local bar, and 4:25 a.m., when he was shot near his home, even considering the time Rich would have required in order to walk home. Sorting through the thin evidence is unlikely to produce a conclusive breakthrough in the case, as long as the Washington Police Department withholds all investigative reports and the family of Rich actively discourages further inquiries. The Democratic National Party continues to dismiss Rich’s involvement in the theft of the DNC emails as a “conspiracy theory,” so as to deflect any threat to its Russia-collusion story, which itself lacks evidence.
Assange insists that the Russians had nothing to do with the stolen emails that WikiLeaks published in 2016.
In an interview broadcast on Dutch television on August 9, 2016,[1] host Eelco Bosch van Rosenthal asked Assange, “The stuff that you’re sitting on, is an October surprise in there?” Assange insisted, “WikiLeaks never sits on material,” even though he had previously said that WikiLeaks had more material related to the Hillary Clinton campaign that had yet to be published. Then, on his own initiative, without being specifically asked, Assange began talking about Seth Rich.
“Whistleblowers go to significant efforts to get us material, and often very significant risks,” Assange volunteered. “There’s a twenty-seven-year-old that works for the DNC who was shot in the back, murdered, just a few weeks ago, for unknown reasons, as he was walking down the streets in Washington.” Van Rosenthal argued that the basis of Rich’s murder was robbery. “No, there’s no findings,” Assange answered. “What are you suggesting?” Van Rosenthal countered. “I’m suggesting that our sources take risks—and they become concerned to see things occurring like that,” Assange responded obliquely.
There was no reason for Assange to have spontaneously brought up Seth Rich in the context of the risks his sources take if Rich were not responsible for stealing the DNC and Podesta emails published by WikiLeaks.
On August 9, 2016, WikiLeaks offered a $20,000 reward “for information leading to the conviction for the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich.” Again, why would WikiLeaks do this if Rich were not the leak in question? Repeatedly, Assange has denied that the Russians “or any state party” supplied WikiLeaks with the DNC and/or Podesta emails.[2]
Speaking plainly, Assange—a political operative with an established reputation of telling the truth—has denied that the Russians or any state actor was involved, knowing he was leaving the clear impression that the stolen DNC and Podesta emails WikiLeaks published can be traced back to someone internal to the DNC—the same conclusion President Obama suggested in his final press conference. At that press conference, on January 18, 2017, two days before Donald Trump’s inauguration as president, Obama said the following: “The conclusions of the intelligence community with respect to the Russian hacking were not conclusive as to whether WikiLeaks was witting or not in being the conduit through which we heard the DNC emails that were leaked.”[3]
[1] Nieuwsuur, “Julian Assange on Seth Rich,” YouTube.com, August 9, 2016,
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[2] Michelle Ye Hee Lee, “Julian Assange’s claim that there was no Russian involvement in WikiLeaks emails,” Washington Post, Jan. 5, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/01/05/julian-assanges-claim-that-there-was-no-russian-involvement-in-wikileaks-emails/?utm_term=.f84c2c59de46.
[3] “Obama’s Last News Conference: Full Transcript and Video,” New York Times, Jan. 18, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/18/us/politics/obama-final-press-conference.html.