Seth Rich timeline reveals questions that haven't been answered
The available evidence that DNC staffer Seth Rich contacted WikiLeaks to turn over insider emails before he was murdered last year in a still-unsolved Washington, D.C., crime isn’t abundant.
A statement from an unidentified federal investigator. A comment from a blogger. Uncorroborated claims that his laptop had a cache of DNC emails and evidence of WikiLeaks contact.
But the murder has yet to be solved, and while police describe the attack as an attempted robbery, Rich still had his watch, wallet and phone when he was found.
This all according to a timeline of events by columnist and author Diana West, whose “A Seth Rich Chronology, Part 1” has generated all sorts of interest.
WND previously reported the murder of Rich, a DNC insider apparently with access to internal communications, happened just days before WikiLeaks released thousands of DNC emails on the eve of the Democratic National Convention.
The following are some of the important developments in the case, as reported by West:
June 14, 2016
The Washington Post reported it was “Russian government hackers” who obtained the DNC communications, but West simply asked the obvious question, “On what did the paper base this claim?”
She noted the security expert sources were from CrowdStrike, a private firm working for the DNC, which, she pointed out, had been founded by the Moscow-born Dmitri Alperovitch, a nonresident senior fellow at the globalist Atlantic Council, which has ties to Hillary Clinton.
“It is important to bear in mind that the FBI has never examined the DNC computer network because the DNC prohibited the FBI from doing so,” West wrote.
She cited a Post report that stated: “That evening, she [DNC executive Amy Dacey] spoke with Michael Sussman, a DNC lawyer who is a partner with Perkins Coie in Washington. Soon after, Sussmann, a former federal prosecutor who handled computer crime cases, called [CrowdStrike president Shawn Henry], whom he has known for many years.”
“The political nature of the DNC’s choice of a politically connected cyber-security firm itself is not surprising; what is five-alarm-shocking, though, is that the FBI has never verified the firm’s ‘Russian hacking’ findings,” she explained.
Sussmann, she pointed out, is a partner with Perkins Coie, the law firm that ferried Obama’s “birth certificate” from Hawaii to Washington.
See Diana West’s original and extensive timeline.
June 22, 2016
John Ashe dies of injuries from a barbell that crushed his throat. He had been scheduled to report to court shortly after this date, along with Ng Lap Seng, as part of a fraud case alleging payola.
The New York Post explained, according to West, “Seng was identified in a 1998 Senate report as the source of hundreds of thousands of dollars illegally funneled through an Arkansas restaurant owner, Charlie Trie, to the Democratic National Committee during the Clinton administration.”
June 27, 2016
Bill Clinton and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch meet in a private jet at the Phoenix airport just as the FBI was preparing to decide whether or not to refer charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server.
The two later say their meeting, which was without witnesses, was just a private chat about grandchildren.
July 5, 2016
FBI chief James Comey announces in a news conference that the bureau found Hillary Clinton to have been “extremely careless” in her handling of classified information, but there was no case.
“Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case,” he claimed.
July 10, 2016
Rich is found with gunshot wounds near his Washington, D.C., residence early in the morning. He died a short time later. Police claim the murder was linked to a robbery attempt, although there was no evidence he was robbed.
July 22, 2016
Just three days before the DNC convention begins, an event long expected to be the coronation of Hillary Clinton as the Democratic Party presidential nominee, WikiLeaks releases 44,053 emails with thousands of attachments that undermine Clinton’s integrity and trigger the resignation of then-DNC chief Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
July 23, 2016
Without anything more than claims, allegations and innuendo, reports begin appearing in left-leaning media outlets that members of Trump’s campaign were colluding with the Russian government to affect the outcome of the election.
The claims coincide with the email evidence that the DNC was manipulating the primary to ensure Clinton defeated Bernie Sanders.
July 25, 2016
Wasserman Schultz is booed from the stage at the DNC by party members angered by the party’s collusion with Clinton. She resigns 72 hours later.
Aug. 1, 2016
West points out “From Russia with Money,” from Peter Schweizer is published. It details “Clinton cronyism and corruption” and cites “multiple and profitable connections between Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation, John Podesta, and Russia.”
Days later, Julian Assange of WikiLeaks “brings up the recent murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich while discussing the great risks WikiLeaks sources take. WikiLeaks will contribute $20,000 to what grows to more $125,000 in reward money for information leading to arrest of the murderer(s) of Seth Rich,” West explained. A private detective, Rod Wheeler, later confirms no one has tried to get the money.
Aug. 11, 2016
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi states bluntly: “I know for sure that it is the Russians; I said that at the convention two weeks ago. … This is an electronic Watergate. This is an electronic Watergate. … This is a break-in. This is a break-in, and I think we have to recognize what is happening here.”
Aug. 25, 2016
West reports a private briefing for members of Congress by CIA Director John Brennan, who discussed “a significant Russian breach of the Democratic National Committee.” The New York Times reported there were “signs of possible connections to the Trump campaign, the officials said.”
Sept. 5, 2016
The Washington Post says Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is looking into efforts by Russia to create dissension in the 2016 presidential election.
Oct. 7, 2016
The U.S. government is quoted as formally accusing Russia of hacking the campaign to interfere with the election. The quote comes from Clapper’s office: “The U.S. Intelligence Community is confident that the Russian government directed the recent compromises of emails from U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organizations.”
Over the next few days, a tape was released by the Washington Post of Trump’s lewd comments, which was followed by a WikiLeaks dump of John Podesta emails.
Then came a now-deleted tweet from Jonathan Rich, Seth Rich’s cousin: “First thing I said when my dad told me [about Seth’s death] was he knew something and he was murdered. The rest of the family thought I was nuts.”
Oct. 17, 2016
In the middle of the email releases, Assange’s Web access is cut off and he accuses a “state party” of involvement. And within 48 hours Clinton claims “17 intelligence agencies … have all concluded that these espionage attacks, these cyberattacks, come from the highest levels of the Kremlin.” Trump responds in a debate: “She has no idea whether it is Russia, China or anybody else.”
Oct. 20, 2016
West reports Fred Fleitz of National Review corrects Clinton: “Only two intelligence entities … have weighed in.”
Then comes the lung cancer death in London of Gavin McFadyen, later identified in a Fox News report as Seth Rich’s WikiLeak’s contact. And about the same time, FBI chief James Comey announces the reopening, and shortly later, second closing, of an investigation into Clinton’s email scandal.
Nov. 2, 2016
Jonathan Rich turns to social media again. He asks why “people close to Hillary & Bill Clinton tend to end up dead in weird ways … like my cousin.”
Murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich reportedly sent 44,053 internal DNC emails to WikiLeaks before he was gunned down in while walking home from a bar in the wee hours of the night on July 10, 2016.
According to the book “Shattered,” Clinton supporters hold a meeting to dissect her election collapse, concluding, “Russian hacking was the major unreported story of the campaign.”
Dec. 9, 2016
The Washington Post trumpets, West notes, “The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, according to officials briefed on the matter.”
Dec. 14, 2016
WikiLeaks associate Craig Murray confirms to the London Daily Mail he was in Washington in September to get emails from an insider with the Democratic Party who was disgusted “at the corruption of the Clinton Foundation and the tilting of the primary election playing field against Bernie Sanders.”
The government formally gets into the act with President Obama’s decision to impose sanctions on Russia and expel 35 diplomats based on claims from Crowdstrike that the Russian hacking of the DNC was linked to Russian hacking of the Ukrainian military, which was promptly and widely debunked.
West explains that before this action, “the FBI, to repeat, has not examined the DNC servers to verify Crowdstrike’s findings.”
Jan. 10, 2017
West reports Comey admits it’s better when investigators can look at the original devices, but in this case, it used information from a “private company.”
“Yes, my head hurts, too. But out of this giant headache may emerge some clear truths. In the meantime, it is extremely notable that Twitter talk of suppression of the investigation into or even discussion of whether Seth Rich was a DNC source for WikiLeaks and murdered as a result is coming not only from the MSM, but hard left and Democrat ‘data’ professionals,” West wrote.
May 2017
WND reported a manager of the Washington, D.C., bar where Seth Rich was last spotted hours before he was shot and killed last summer said D.C. police officers never interviewed the bar’s staff or requested any evidence from the bar, including the bar’s surveillance video from that night.
The revelation backs up a claim by a private investigator who worked on the case that D.C. police were told to “stand down” on the investigation.
WND also reported the investigator recently was ordered to “cease and desist” his work on the murder case.
“The police never asked for the surveillance video from that night,” a manager of Lou’s City Bar told WND.
The statements back up a claim by private investigator Rod Wheeler – a retired D.C. police detective who was hired to independently investigate Rich’s murder – that police were told to stand down on Rich’s murder investigation.
Wheeler told FOX 5: “I have a source inside the police department that has looked at me straight in the eye and said: ‘Rod, we were told to stand down on this case and I can’t share any information with you.’ Now, that is highly unusual for a murder investigation, especially from a police department.”
May 2017
WND also has reported on the eerie similarities between Rich’s death and several deaths of individuals linked to former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton.
Just as in the Rich case, several of the people who died mysterious deaths were shot spontaneously and in public places, sometimes from behind, sometimes by unknown assailants and often just before they were set to release incriminating evidence concerning the Clintons’ activities. In most cases, there were no signs of theft at the crime scenes. And while some of the deaths were ruled suicides, other cases remain a mystery.
President Donald Trump (Photo: Twitter) As WND reported, Rich was murdered July 10, 2016, near his home in an affluent neighborhood of Washington, D.C. He was shot in the back with a handgun at 4:18 a.m. while on a phone call with his girlfriend, and nothing was taken from him. He was transported to a local hospital and was pronounced dead at 5:57 a.m.
May 22, 2017
WND reported former Democratic National Committee interim chairwoman Donna Brazile allegedly called police and the family of Seth Rich and demanded to know why a private investigator was “snooping” into Rich’s death.
“The high-ranking DNC official that called the police after I inquired about Rich’s case was Donna Brazile,” veteran homicide detective Rod Wheeler told WND. “Why shouldn’t I reveal who it was?”
Brazile, who was also a CNN contributor and a Hillary for America donor at the time, was caught providing Clinton with questions that would later be asked of Clinton at a televised CNN town hall. In an interview with Fox News before the election, Brazile denied leaking the questions to Clinton. But in a March 17, 2017, column for Time magazine, she finally admitted doing so, saying it was a “mistake I will forever regret.”
About the same time, “Kim Dotcom,” a Twitter handle for a hacker described as an “entrepreneur, innovator, gamer, artist, Internet freedom fighter & father of 5,” sounded off. He is a German-Finnish Internet entrepreneur who founded Megaupload. On May 20, Kim Dotcom tweeted: “I knew Seth Rich. I know he was the @Wikileaks source. I was involved.”
WND has reported on the suspicious circumstances of Rich’s death.
Rich had been at Lou’s City Bar a couple of miles from his house until about 1:15 a.m. There, a worker offered him a ride home because he appeared intoxicated. But Rich instead said he was going to Wonderland Ballroom, another bar a few blocks away.
However, there were no witnesses of his whereabouts from the time he left Lou’s until police on patrol heard gunfire and found him wounded in the street.
The London Daily Mail sent researchers to Washington to look into the timeline that night.
The news agency concluded its information “cuts against conspiracy theories that claimed the DNC staffer was assassinated or on his way to an FBI meeting when he was killed.”
But it conceded the crucial period leading up to his death remains “unaccounted for.” It noted the “international speculation and conspiracy theories,” including that Rich gave sensitive DNC documents to WikiLeaks.
The Daily Mail said Rich was at Lou’s City Bar that evening, alone, as he often was.
He had befriended Lou’s bartenders and others, liked to discuss sports and politics, and was described as “a Midwestern kind of guy.”
That night, “something was clearly bothering Rich,” said the report, which said “those who knew him said he had been having problems with his girlfriend – and he seemed to drink more than usual.”
At closing, the Mail said, he was “uncharacteristically unsteady on his feet,” and instead of accepting an offer of a ride home, said he was going to Wonderland.
“Rich left on foot, but it is unclear if he ever ended up going to Wonderland, a crowded weekend bar known for its live music. He was not well-known to the employees there. Staffers who worked that night told the Daily Mail that they did not recall whether they saw him based on his photo,” the report said.
But as even most late-night bars close around 2:30, and the shooting was reported after 4 a.m., that leaves “as much as an hour and a half between the bars and the shooting unaccounted for,” the Mail said.
The damage to Hillary Clinton from the email dump was, even according to left-leaning organizations, was significant.
Even the progressive Politifact concluded the email dump “shredded Clinton’s most oft-recited defense – that she never sent or received information marked classified.”
