Why is the Seth Rich Murder Being Sidetracked by the FBI?

Seth Rich, Democratic National Committee staffer, was murdered on July 10^th, 2016 in Washington D.C. just a few blocks from his home in the early-morning hours. The initial report by the Washington Metro police department lists aggravated assault/homicide but makes no mention of robbery. The media narrative was that it was a robbery, gone bad. There is no support for that theory and no one has yet to identify what items were supposedly taken from Mr. Rich. At the time his body was discovered, he was still wearing his watch, his phone, wallet, and keys were still in his possession untouched, and he was wearing a necklace worth two thousand dollars.

Many people close to the case believe Mr. Rich was assassinated. He was shot in the back at close range and nothing was taken; even a non-expert can see that this was more than just a robbery gone wrong. It had the signature of a professional hit job. It’s interesting to read the different theories circulating in the mainstream press. One story details how Mr. Rich was talking on the phone and was confronted by someone, but it fails to mention how he was shot in the back. Another, claims the assailant or assailants panicked and ran after the shooting; also a tough pill to swallow. It would seem that someone comfortable with murder would not panic after pulling the trigger. To date, there are no records available for public scrutiny, other than the “official reports.” The one thing that counters the professional hit angle is the fact that he was alive when the police found him. Usually professional killers make sure the victim is dead before leaving the scene.

The reason for the assassination theory is connected to the massive leak suffered by his employer the Democratic National Committee; a leak which many think wasn’t a leak at all, but an inside job. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has implied that Rich was the source for the leaked DNC e-mails that caused the Democratic Party so many headaches. WikiLeaks releases over 44,000 e-mails that clearly showed how the DNC manipulated the Democratic Primary race to sabotage Bernie Sanders chances to win the Party nomination. It has been said that Seth and his brother Aaron downloaded the e-mail and sold them to WikiLeaks. Assange said this, “Our whistleblowers go to significant efforts to get us material and often [face] very significant risks. A 27-year-old that works for the DNC was shot in the back, murdered just a few weeks ago for unknown reasons, as he was walking down the street in Washington, D.C.”

The reason many think this was an inside job ties back to the post-leak investigation. The FBI opened an investigation in July of 2016, yet, due to the DNC’s refusal to allow any agent to review their server were unable to perform any forensic tests to determine the source of the leak. The DNC used a private security firm they hired called Crowd Strike to assess the situation. The result was an unproved and highly susceptible narrative about Russia hacking their system. What’s interesting to note is that Crowd Strike was founded and operated by Dmitri Alperovitch, a computer security expert who was born in Moscow, and had very close ties to high-ranking FBI leaders. The close connections of the two groups are highly-suspect, as well as the reliance on the non-sanctioned investigation. It would seem that after the high profile claims that a foreign government was trying to hack one of the major Parties, that the FBI would simply swoop in and investigate.

As of this moment, no one is investigating the murder and no one in law enforcement seems willing to talk about it. There are unsubstantiated rumors that even discussing the case is a potential-termination for any officer, so the force is tight-lipped. Some unanswered questions that aren’t being reported are adding fuel to the fire. It has been discovered that his girlfriend was in Michigan There are just a few mentions of Seth’s brother Aaron, even one that connects him to the DNC, but a simple search for Aaron Rich shows nothing expect a Go-Fund me page seeking donations to help an independent investigation. Rich has been connected to several Clinton-funded organizations, but none of them were investigated.

When officers appeared on the scene, Seth Rich was conscious and still breathing and was transported to a local hospital but died at the facility. What did he say to officers? Where is the transcript? The crime scene was sanitized, and no shell casings were found. This could indicate a revolver was used versus another type of firearm, but unless there was evidence of powder residue, this cannot be substantiated. If this was a robbery, we would expect to find signs of a struggle and possibly DNA evidence on his hands. There is a second-hand report that he had bruises on his hands, face, and knees, and yet the fatal wounds were in his back – the likelihood and both situations occurring are slim to none. There has been no report of the type of gun, caliber, or other firearm-related evidence revealed, but when being interviewed about it afterwards, Hillary Clinton said, “Surely we can agree that weapons of war have no place on the streets of America." This is strange as the police report said it was a handgun.

Mr. Rich lived in a high-profile area and there are multiple security cameras being utilized by residents. The public has not been made aware of any footage. All requests for autopsy or other medical records have been kept from the public. Mr. Rich was also last seen at Lou’s City Bar; he left at 1:30 AM and he was walking. The bar was 1.8 miles from his house, and Seth was a regular cyclist so the walk home should have taken about 30 minutes. Where was he during those hours of the morning? Some theories may try to point to someone following him from the bar and then trying to rob him, but the timeline seems to make that theory worthless.

Another unanswered question concerns the hospital Mr. Rich went to. There are two possible locations; Howard University Hospital, is three blocks east of the murder location, and MedStar Washington Hospital Center is less than two miles to the north. Yet the actual location isn’t known. What is known is that the ambulance took exactly 6 minutes and 40 seconds to reach the hospital. This timeline anomaly seems to indicate he was taken somewhere else, but for what reason? It was early Sunday morning so traffic would have been virtually non-existent.

As the evidence trail grows colder, many people are asking the same questions. Why hasn’t Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller investigated the DNC? If the hackings supposedly took place there, and Mr. Mueller is trying to identify the source of this supposed Russian influence, then why isn’t his team working on their servers? Why haven't any details been released on the incident? Will this be another case that gets mothballed as unsolved but still open - therefore giving law enforcement a blanket reason for stonewalling any requests for information? Three of the officers were wearing Body-Cam's but refuse to release the footage. Finally, many reports claim Seth Rich was unaware he was even shot and was conversing with EMT's at the scene; his injuries didn't seem life-threatening at the time, so what happened? How did Seth Rich actually die? Or better, who murdered him and why?

The article you've just read contains a lot of information available to anyone who chooses to research it. What I've tried to present is a compilation of what's known so if you know of something that I missed, please comment.