New Study Fuels Seth Rich Conspiracy Theories

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By Nathan Guttman June 21, 2017

A new report presented Tuesday in Washington D.C. seeks to shed light on the mysterious murder of Jewish Democratic staffer Seth Rich — but his family says it provides no new evidence.

The report was compiled by a group of George Washington University forensic students called Profiling Project, which was founded by Jack Burkman, a Republican lobbyist who volunteered his services for investigating the murder but has since been accused by the family of advancing unsubstantiated theories regarding their son’s death.

The Profiling Project’s key finding is that it is unlikely Rich was murdered by random attackers as part of a robbery gone bad and that it is more likely the crime was carried out by “a hired killer or serial murderer” who is still at large.

“It’s the lack of clues that has led to this conclusion,” said the Profiling Project’s Kevin Doherty in a press conference, pointing to the “sanitized” crime scene.

The report does not support conspiracy theories tying Rich’s murder with the DNC pre-election email dump.

But Rich family spokesman Brad Bauman dismissed the report as containing no new evidence about the puzzling case.

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.

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