Seth Rich Parents Refute New Claims On Wikileaks Contact

Image by Linkedin

By Nathan Guttman May 16, 2017

The parents of slain Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich are speaking out against yet another conspiracy theory surrounding their son’s death — even though the latest disclosure comes from an investigator they hired.

Rob Wheeler, a private investigator hired by the family, went on Fox News and [claimed(https://forward.com/fast-forward/372053/slain-democratic-staffer-seth-rich-contacted-wikileaks-before-mystery-murde/) he had evidence that Rich had been in email contact with wikileaks before he was murdered outside his DC home. This could feed into the claim made by conspiracy theorists that Rich was in some way involved in the DNC email leak and was targeted by the Democratic Party in retaliation.

The Rich family was quick to dispute Wheeler’s claims.

“We see no facts, we have seen no evidence, we have been approached with no emails and only learned about this when contacted by the press,” Brad Bauman, a spokesman for the Rich family told BuzzFeed News.

Ever since the July 10 unsolved murder, Mary and Joel Rich have been battling recurring conspiracy theories aimed at tying their son’s killing with the pre-election DNC email leak. The parents and the Washington D.C. police believe it was a robbery gone wrong.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re in the middle of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO