The true origins of the Seth Rich conspiracy theory. A Yahoo News investigation.

a reply to: xuenchen

He is the very writer who worked with Steele and used Steele as the source for a story, who then had his story used in the fisa warrant to confirm Steele’s claims

(Yes Steele as a source in isikoffs story confirmed Steele’s dossier)

Responsible for pushing one of the biggest conspiracy theory lies (that led to a two year investigation and is still believed by over half of democrats despite mueller showing it was all a lie)

There would be no point in killing him. If he dumped data the damage was done. Killing him during the election would create more campaign scrutiny which it did. Nobody wanted that on team Hillary. They had enough problems already.

a reply to: Liquesence

disguised to read as a real intelligence report —about the alleged murder of the former DNC staffer

Big fail from yahoo, the first paragraph claims it was an alleged murder. There is nothing alleged about it. Shooting someone on purpose doesn’t count as man slaughter.

It’s almost as if they want us to uncover the truth. Which btw yahoo we already did nearly two years ago.

The Russians said Bill Clinton flew on the lolitia Express 26 times. So this must be false since Russians said it. That is your logic.

A Russian site posted what many others were also thinking. If a Russian or space alien never posted that Seth Rich was murdered by Clinton or DNC, we would still think it is highly possible. Why? Because that is what Clinton's do, they murder people.

a reply to: Stupidsecrets

It was a kind of robbery they wanted the fob which he had on him which contained more data, not his wallet or anything else like a typical robbery. He was then permanently silenced.

originally posted by: Liquesence
Exclusive: The true origins of the Seth Rich conspiracy theory. A Yahoo News investigation.

WASHINGTON — In the summer of 2016, Russian intelligence agents secretly planted a fake report claiming that Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich was gunned down by a squad of assassins working for Hillary Clinton, giving rise to a notorious conspiracy theory that captivated conservative activists and was later promoted from inside President Trump’s White House, a Yahoo News investigation has found.

Russia’s foreign intelligence service, known as the SVR, first circulated a phony “bulletin” — disguised to read as a real intelligence report —about the alleged murder of the former DNC staffer on July 13, 2016, according to the U.S. federal prosecutor who was in charge of the Rich case.

This is a very interesting article for several reasons. I know there are many people on this site who are/were convinced that Seth was murdered as part of some deep state plot masterminded by Hillary after he supposedly uncovered tons of dirt and transferred it to certain outlets supposedly "proving" this that or the other.

And I am not surprised so many were duped.

But as the article shows, it's a complete fabrication by Russian intelligence that was seeded on the internet, picked up by right wing blogs, Alex Jones, and then made its way into right wing prime time—Fox, Hannity, etc, smearing a murdered staffer for ratings, to blame Hillary, and to detract from the investigations.

The Russian effort to exploit Rich’s tragic death didn’t stop with the fake SVR bulletin. Over the course of the next two and a half years, the Russian government-owned media organizations RT and Sputnik repeatedly played up stories that baselessly alleged that Rich, a relatively junior-level staffer, was the source of Democratic Party emails that had been leaked to WikiLeaks.

IRA-created fake accounts, masquerading as those of American citizens or political groups, tweeted and retweeted more than 2,000 times about Rich, helping to keep the bogus claims about his death in the social media bloodstream, according to an analysis of a database of Russia troll accounts by Yahoo News.

Sines, the former prosecutor, said that the Russian conspiracy-mongering vastly complicated her efforts to solve the murder by forcing her and the Washington, D.C., police department to investigate a blizzard of false allegations in order to make sure there was nothing to any of them. “To waste your time investigating BS is just horrible,” said Sines.

“It appeared to me that it was a very clear campaign to deflect an ongoing federal criminal investigation,” Sines said. “So then you have to look at why is Russia doing this? … It’s not rocket science before you add it up and you go, ‘Oh, if Seth is the leaker to WikiLeaks — it doesn’t have anything to do with the Russians.

Bingo.

And here we have Fox and Hannity, aiding and abetting the fabrication to millions of viewers, viewers who took it hook, line, and sinker, believing it.

The conspiracy claims reached their zenith in May 2017 — the same week as Mueller’s appointment as special counsel in the Russia probe — when Fox News’ website posted a sensational story claiming that an FBI forensic report had discovered evidence on Rich’s laptop that he had been in communication with WikiLeaks prior to his death. Sean Hannity, the network’s primetime star, treated the account as major news on his nightly broadcast, calling it “explosive” and proclaiming it “might expose the single biggest fraud, lies, perpetrated on the American people by the media and the Democrats in our history.”

In fact, the Fox story was a “complete fabrication,” said Sines, who consulted with the FBI about the Fox News claims. There was “no connection between Seth and WikiLeaks. And there was no evidence on his work computer of him downloading and disseminating things from the DNC.”

I'm sure this will convince few of you already so steeped in the belief that Hillary is still behind it, but that's the whole point in propaganda. And I expect the usual trolls to swarm in trying to discredit the article and the information.

What information?

There is no verifiable info in your whole, pointless diatribe.

originally posted by: Stupidsecrets
There would be no point in killing him. If he dumped data the damage was done. Killing him during the election would create more campaign scrutiny which it did. Nobody wanted that on team Hillary. They had enough problems already.

There is no point in a loan shark or drug dealer killing someone that owes them money... but it happens.
Sometimes they are just that pissed of and vindictive, sometimes it is about making an example of the person.

a reply to: butcherguy

I agree on making an example out of someone, that could be a motive but the stakes were high and Hillary was already surrounded in scandal and campaign scrutiny. If it was a hit it was very very sloppy. He lived for a while. If it would have been a clean kill then yes, I would throw out the robbery story entirely. If he lives then what? Another attempt would have to be made. At that point nobody would believe the botched robbery.

a reply to: Liquesence

Also there was the innuendo from Asange..

I always found Assange super fishy concerning Rich..

Assange publicity outed Rich as having been a source
In the most blantantly over the top manor, then is asked to confirm ITV and refuses...


If someone associated with Rich might be in danger if Rich is outed... well Assange just already outed them..

So at the point Assange had just done literally everything but say he was a source, he refuses to confirm Rich was a source...

It went something like...

“Let’s not forget people have given their lives to aid in transparency and whistle blow on the powerful, people like Seth ”


So of course the reporters asked him to clarify and he refuses to confirm...

Totally destroyed his credibility

a reply to: surfer_soul

There's no evidence of any kind to show he had a drive of DNC data on him.

On the flip side, imagine you're a mugger that's been working the same corner with no issue for weeks. Suddenly you meet resistance and someone ends ups dead. Maybe you hear a siren in the distance.

Are you going to stick around to roll the guy?

originally posted by: network dude

originally posted by: Lumenari
a reply to: Liquesence

Yes, a botched robbery.

Occam's Razor.

If you are going to invoke Occam's Razor...

The data was transferred from a thumb drive.

Now who would have means, motive and opportunity to do that?

Seth Richards was a pissed off Bernie supporter that knew Hillary and the DNC stole the election from Bernie.

Who had access to the DNC server.

Who had an appointment with the FBI with information about the DNC when there as a "botched robbery attempt".


Now... who had the means, motive and opportunity to make Seth go away?

Duh, Russians.

I'm surprised at this point that there isn't a thread here yet about how the California earthquakes were the fault of Russian disinformation agents...

I mean, how much further can we go with "Russia, Russia, Russia?"

It's gotten crazy.

a reply to: JohnS23

Maybe.... but I knew something was rotten in Denmark by the way Assange acted...

He told the world Rich lost his life for being a leaker, then when asked Confirm Seth was a leaker refused...

a reply to: JustJohnny

Clintons like being accused of murdering people trying to leak info. Even if they didn't do it, it discourages other leakers. And they have been above the law for decades, so no downside for them. It's just a whack conspiracy theory that has enough merit to make people fearful of them.

originally posted by: Xcalibur254
a reply to: surfer_soul

There's no evidence of any kind to show he had a drive of DNC data on him.

On the flip side, imagine you're a mugger that's been working the same corner with no issue for weeks. Suddenly you meet resistance and someone ends ups dead. Maybe you hear a siren in the distance.

Are you going to stick around to roll the guy?

Well there wouldn’t be any evidence if it was stolen would there?

Imagine you’re a mugger with a gun and someone resists you (what unarmed person would?) you shoot the person for resisting you and then immediately flee the scene without taking a wallet or anything of value which was the whole point of mugging someone in the first place. How long would it take to lift a wallet from someone you just shot? You’d have plenty of time before the cops showed up.

I’m afraid your logic is faulty. Also why did Assange put out a reward for info on Seth’s murderers if he had nothing to do with the DNC leaks?

Is there anyone else that leaked info to wikileaks that was murdered? Why yes there is, the female journalist who leaked the Panama and Paradise papers was blown up in a car bomb in Malta.. so it’s not as if it’s unprecedented.

Let’s not forget how those DNC leaks were connecting Podesta to the whole pizzagate scandal and how quickly that was shut down all over the web.

To say something fishy is/was going on is a massive understatement.

Do you seriously believe that JFK was assassinated by Oswald? Because that is what they wanted us to believe, but anyone with half a brain knows that it was certain individuals in the CIA working alongside the mafia that had the audacity to execute a sitting president in full view of the public.

a reply to: Lumenari

It was Russian disinformation fed to one of our news outlets to confuse the citizens.

Why does this sound familiar?

Like Steele Dossier familiar.

Except that the Steele Dossier, which was, essentially, one of the catalysts (the other being Papadopoulos) for the investigation for Russian infiltration—to whatever degree—into the Trump campaign, has never exactly been proved false.

If Seth Rich was a conspiracy planted by Russian Intelligence to target Hillary, which it appears to be, that means the entire "Hillary/Deep State had Rich killed because he had info" is a bunch of BS—and resulted in nothing substantial, unlike the Steele Dossier and subsequent investigation.

Big difference. Huge.

a reply to: Liquesence

If the Seth rich conspiracy has been proven false

Then certainly the Steele Dossier, which this guy who writhe the story in the op helped promote, has been proven wrong

The fact that as you say it lead to an investigation proves it was a far more harmful conspiracy theory than the Seth rich story

a reply to: Liquesence

Interesting that Steel is being brought up again on the day it was reported that DOJ officials interviewed him in London when Trump was in town and found his testimony credible and even surprising.

The interview was contentious at first, according to two people familiar with the matter, but investigators ultimately found his testimony credible and even surprising.

Trump dossier author Steele gets 16-hour DOJ grilling

a reply to: RexKramerPRT

Guess those doj officials were wrong

Mueller investigated for nearly two years and couldn’t confirm any of the criminal claims Steele had in his dossier

Even steel admitted in court in the uk he hadn’t confirmed his claims

a reply to: Grambler

Guess we'll find out when the IG investigation is over.

Look, don't blame me. I tried over and over again to tell you guys that the story was ridiculous but I got poo pooed and told
I was drinking the democrat koolaid.