The Seth Rich conspiracy theory, promoted by a since retracted article by Fox News and the network's popular right-wing host Sean Hannity, originally stemmed from a phony "bulletin" circulated by Russian intelligence, an investigative report by Yahoo News has found.
Rich, who worked for the DNC in a relatively junior role, was murdered two years ago, shortly before the 2016 Democratic National Convention when Hillary Clinton was officially confirmed as her party's presidential nomination. Prosecutors believed almost immediately – and still believe – that the killing of the 27-year-old was due to a robbery gone bad. Numerous armed robberies on the same street had been reported to police in the months leading up to the incident.
Deborah Sines, the U.S. federal prosecutor who was previously in charge of Rich's case, told Yahoo News the Russian foreign intelligence service (known as SVR) circulated a "bulletin" designed to look like a real intelligence report that falsely claimed Rich was an FBI informant. The document stated Rich was headed to inform the FBI about crimes involving Hillary Clinton on the night of his death, and was killed by a squad of assassins working for the former secretary of state. In reality, Rich was heading home late at night after a few drinks with colleagues.
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Although the FBI long knew that the claims were incorrect, and Rich's family also attempted push back against the conspiracy, it continued to spread. In May of 2017, about 10 months after Rich had died, Fox News posted a sensational story claiming that sources within the FBI had said Rich was in contact with WikiLeaks prior to his death.
Sean Hannity touted the story on his popular evening program, saying it "might expose the single biggest fraud, lies, perpetrated on the American people by the media and the Democrats in our history." He argued: "If Seth was Wiki source, no Trump/Russia collusion."
https://www.newsweek.com/seth-rich-conspiracy-russian-intel-fox-news-sean-hannity-1448331
It's not clear whether Hannity was an unwitting asset for Russian intelligence, or whether he was aware that the story had been planted.
Rich, who worked for the DNC in a relatively junior role, was murdered two years ago, shortly before the 2016 Democratic National Convention when Hillary Clinton was officially confirmed as her party's presidential nomination. Prosecutors believed almost immediately – and still believe – that the killing of the 27-year-old was due to a robbery gone bad. Numerous armed robberies on the same street had been reported to police in the months leading up to the incident.
Deborah Sines, the U.S. federal prosecutor who was previously in charge of Rich's case, told Yahoo News the Russian foreign intelligence service (known as SVR) circulated a "bulletin" designed to look like a real intelligence report that falsely claimed Rich was an FBI informant. The document stated Rich was headed to inform the FBI about crimes involving Hillary Clinton on the night of his death, and was killed by a squad of assassins working for the former secretary of state. In reality, Rich was heading home late at night after a few drinks with colleagues.
...
Although the FBI long knew that the claims were incorrect, and Rich's family also attempted push back against the conspiracy, it continued to spread. In May of 2017, about 10 months after Rich had died, Fox News posted a sensational story claiming that sources within the FBI had said Rich was in contact with WikiLeaks prior to his death.
Sean Hannity touted the story on his popular evening program, saying it "might expose the single biggest fraud, lies, perpetrated on the American people by the media and the Democrats in our history." He argued: "If Seth was Wiki source, no Trump/Russia collusion."
https://www.newsweek.com/seth-rich-conspiracy-russian-intel-fox-news-sean-hannity-1448331
It's not clear whether Hannity was an unwitting asset for Russian intelligence, or whether he was aware that the story had been planted.
