EXCLUSIVE: Family of slain DNC staffer Seth Rich demands D.C. police reveal details of its murder investigation after reports claimed he may have been the source of Wikileaks emails
- Rich, a 27-year-old staffer for the DNC, was killed a few blocks from his home in Washington, D.C. last July. No valuables were stolen
- Law enforcement officials have remained silent and theories spread about the mysterious circumstances of Rich’s shooting death
- On Tuesday, Fox News was forced to retract an explosive report that claimed Rich was behind the Wikileaks email leak
- The claim had caused speculation that he may have been assassinated for political reasons
- A team of private investigators led by GOP lobbyist Jack Burkman told DailyMail.com he found no emails to Wikileaks on Seth Rich's computer
- PI Rod Wheeler told DailyMail.com told he has never personally viewed the emails
- Police said Rich's unsolved killing was the result of a botched robbery but PIs working for the family said the shooting was unrelated to a robbery
The family of slain DNC staffer Seth Rich is calling on the Washington, D.C. police department to go public with details of the murder investigation, after ten months of near-silence from law enforcement officials and as theories continue to spread about the mysterious circumstances of Rich’s shooting death last July.
‘The family has full confidence in the Metropolitan Police Department’s ability to proceed with this investigation. But given the large amount of hearsay and conspiracy theories surrounding the case, maybe it’s time for the police department to be more forthcoming with information regarding the investigation and to update the people of Washington, D.C. on the status of the case,’ said Brad Bauman, a spokesperson for Rich’s family.
Bauman’s statement follows renewed interest in the murder investigation, amid claims that Rich may have been the source who leaked thousands of DNC emails to Wikileaks last summer.
On Tuesday, PI Rod Wheeler said there's evidence on a laptop that Seth Rich spoke to WikiLeaks. Rich's family said they have not seen anything that proves this is true
Rich's family offered a $25,000 reward for any information leading to how and why he was shot in the back after a night of heavy drinking at Lou's City Bar
On Tuesday, Fox News was forced to retract an explosive report that claimed Rich was behind the email leak – a claim that caused many to speculate he may have been assassinated for political reasons. Fox News pulled the article and said in a statement that the story did not meet its editorial standards.
Over the weekend, internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom – who is facing extradition to the United States on racketeering charges – also announced on Twitter that he knew Seth Rich personally and had personal knowledge that Rich was the Wikileaks source.
Rich’s family says it has seen no evidence that Rich leaked information to Wikileaks, nor that this had any connection to his death last July.
Rich, a 27-year-old staffer for the DNC, was shot and killed a few blocks from his home in Washington, D.C. in the early morning hours of July 10. No valuables were stolen from him, and police do not appear to have any suspects.
GOP lobbyist and DC lawyer Jack Burkman formally appealed to Congress to investigate the death of Rich
Police sources have indicated they believe Rich was killed in a botched robbery. However, the Dailymail.com has spoken to two private investigators working for the family on the case. Both said they believe the shooting was unrelated to a robbery.
The Metropolitan Police Department has been notably tight-lipped on the case and has released very few details to the public since last July.
The MPD declined to comment to Dailymail.com about whether they have any suspects or are following any current leads, whether the FBI assisted with computer forensics, or whether they could provide a physical description of the potential assailants. The police also declined to say whether their current assumption is that Rich was killed in a robbery attempt.
A private investigator working for Seth Rich's family said he has examined the slain DNC staffer's computers and found no evidence he was in contact with Wikileaks before his death, disputing claims made by an unnamed federal investigator on Tuesday.
An anonymous federal investigator told Fox News on Tuesday that an FBI review of Rich's computer found he had transferred over 40,000 internal DNC emails to Wikileaks last May, which were later published by the whistle blower website.
The report revived speculation about Rich's unsolved murder – including a persistent internet theory that he was assassinated because he had been passing on sensitive DNC information to Wikileaks.
Rich, 27, was killed in the early morning hours of July 10 in northwest Washington, D.C., after spending the night bar-hopping alone. He was shot twice in the back on a deserted street corner near his home by two assailants who took nothing from him and fled the scene before cops arrived.
Nine months later, the police have no suspects in the baffling case – and the killer remains at large.
But Jack Burkman, who has been leading a team of investigators looking into Rich's mysterious death, said his group has personally examined Rich's computers and found no evidence that there were any contacts between the DNC staffer and Wikileaks.
Burkman runs the Profiling Project, which he describes as 'a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week investigation' into the Seth Rich case. His team includes two investigators, a forensic psychologist, and volunteers.
Jack Burkman's findings contradict PI Rod Wheeler's statements on Fox News. Wheeler has since backtracked on the claim that an anonymous federal investigator found emails between Rich and Wikileaks saying he never actually saw the emails
On Tuesday, conspiracy theories about the DNC staffer's death swirled after Fox News said an anonymous federal investigator claimed he transferred over 40,000 internal DNC emails to Wikileaks (WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange pictured)
'We didn't find anything of interest. That's why I was surprised to learn that there are emails, or other emails [with Wikileaks],' said Burkman.
'We did a very thorough search of all of that stuff, the family made these things available a long time ago. And we didn't find anything solid.'
He said if such emails exist they should be made public so they can be reviewed by the family's investigators.
Burkman has also been able to review surveillance footage of the murder that police obtained from a local grocery store. He said the grainy video shows two people standing near Rich, a scuffle, and Rich falling to the ground.
He said he doubts the murder was a botched robbery, noting that nothing was stolen from Rich. He also said he has not ruled out possible connections between Rich and Wikileaks, but has yet to see any evidence supporting this.
According to Burkman, his team is currently looking into the theory that Russian agents may have been behind Rich's death.
'We had [a former U.S. intelligence officer] approach us and say that the Russians did it. So we're looking into connections between Seth and the Russians. We, too, are looking into connections between Seth and Wikileaks, we haven't found anything,' he said. 'We don't go on hunches and inclinations, we go on evidence.'
Fox News quoted another private investigator for the Rich family, former D.C. homicide detective Rod Wheeler, saying that he also saw evidence that Rich had exchanged emails with Wikileaks.
'My investigation up to this point shows there was some degree of email exchange between Seth Rich and WikiLeaks,' Wheeler told Fox News.
But Wheeler told Dailymail.com that he has never personally viewed such emails. He said he does not know the unnamed federal investigator who made the initial claim to Fox News and has never spoken to him.
'That wasn't accurate. I never talked to that federal investigator. I never saw the computers,' said Wheeler. 'There was this federal investigator that said he saw that. I don't know first-hand.'
Wheeler said he only learned about the alleged email exchanges and reported FBI computer review after he was contacted about the story by Fox News.
Jack Burkman's team of investigators are currently looking into the theory that Russian agents may have been behind Seth Rich's (left) death on July 10
But he said he thinks it is possible Rich was killed because he was passing DNC secrets to Wikileaks, and said police should not discount this theory.
'Why are [the police] dragging their feet on this? Why aren't they looking at every possibility, which is what you do in a murder investigation,' said Wheeler. 'That's troubling to me.'
Both the D.C. police department and a spokesperson for Rich's family pushed back on the allegations that Rich had been in contact with Wikileaks.
'The assertions put forward by Mr. Wheeler are unfounded,' said the D.C. police department in a statement. 'The Metropolitan Police Department's (MPD) Homicide Branch is actively investigating Mr. Rich's murder and we continue to work with the family to bring closure to this case as we do with all homicide investigations.'
Brad Bauman, a spokesperson for the Rich family, told Dailymail.com that the family was furious with Wheeler's comments to Fox News – and said they might sue him for breaching a non-disclosure agreement he signed with the family.
Burkman (right) canvassed the neighborhood where Rich was killed as part of the investigation. He said grainy video from a grocery store from the night of the murder that shows two people standing near Rich, a scuffle, and Rich falling to the ground
'As we've seen through the past year of unsubstantiated 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,' said Bauman. 'Even if tomorrow, an email was found, it is not a high enough bar of evidence to prove any interactions as emails can be altered and we've seen that those interested in pushing conspiracies will stop at nothing to do so.'
Wheeler worked on behalf of Rich's family, but his fees were paid by a third party – a conservative financial advisor from Texas named Ed Butowsky.
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Butowsky, a Fox News contributor, told Dailymail.com that he hasn't paid Wheeler anything because the private investigator has never actually charged him.
A father himself, Butowsky said he reached out to the Rich family because he sympathized and wanted to see if he could help them in any way. He said he offered to pay for the private investigator after they told him the D.C. police department had been stonewalling them on the investigation, but they couldn't afford the price tag of a PI.
'They said 'no one's telling us anything, we haven't heard anything from the Washington police, and we call, and we don't get calls returned,' said Butowsky.
A team of investigators found no evidence that there were any contact between the Seth Rich (pictured) and Wikileaks. Police claimed his murder was the result of a botched robbery
'I couldn't believe that these people were not finding out what happened to their son. It sounded like nobody was even investigating it,' he added.
The D.C. police declined to comment on whether it had any current leads. The department has shared very few details of the investigation with the press.
Even a $125,000 reward for information on the killer hasn't unearthed any solid leads, nearly nine months after the tragic shooting.
A Dailymail.com investigation last summer pieced together the final hours leading up to Rich's murder.
That Saturday evening, the DNC staffer went out alone to Lou's City Bar, a local pub that he frequented several nights a week.
Although Rich was normally talkative and upbeat with the bar staff, he seemed noticeably unhappy that night. Bartenders said he was having problems with his girlfriend, who was out of town that night, and they seemed on the verge of breaking up.
Rich drank more than usual that night. When he left the bar, he looked so unsteady on his feet that a bar manager offered him a ride home. He turned it down, saying he wanted to go out drinking more at a bar down the street called Wonderland.
It is unclear if Rich ever showed up at Wonderland, which closed at 2:30 that night. Bar staff did not recognize his photo.
Rich would have walked home from the bars after – a 30-minute trek to his Bloomingdale row house.
He was on the phone with his girlfriend, Kelsey Mulka, 25, in the minutes before his shooting at 4:19 a.m. Police, responding to the sound of multiple gunshots, found Rich lying on a deserted street in a desolate area of Bloomingdale just a few blocks from his house. He had been shot twice in the back, but was still alive. Nothing appeared to be stolen from him and he still had his watch, wallet and cell phone.
Rich was reportedly very talkative with police and paramedics, and many were surprised when he died about two hours later at the hospital from blood loss.
The area where he was shot had been the location of numerous armed robberies in the weeks leading up to Rich's death, and there has been speculation in the neighborhood that he was a victim of a botched robbery.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4516416/DNC-staffer-Seth-Rich-family-demand-answers-cops.html#ixzz4iCPdtixA
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