WikiLeaks has recently highlighted the murder of DNC staffer back during the election cycle, again pushing the "theory," that the staffer was responsible for the DNC, Podesta email leaks, which contradicts the "official" MSM narrative that Russian's were behind the leaks.
BACKGROUND - SETH RICH & WIKILEAKS
Amidst the leaked Podesta and DNC emails which roiled Team Clinton's campaign during the election cycle, a DNC Data Director was murdered in July 2016. His name was Seth Rich, he was 27 years old, and he was beaten and shot in the back as he was walking home, but nothing was taken from him, negating the motive as being a robbery attempt.
On August 9, 2016, WikiLeaks publicly offered a reward for information on Rich's murder, tweeting "WikiLeaks Offers $20K Reward for Information in Murder of DNC Staffer Seth Rich," along with a link to a NBC.Washington article about the reward offer.
Also on August 9, 2016, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, during an interview with Nieuwsuur, a Dutch television program, spoke of whistleblowers and the risks they take, then immediatedly referenced Seth Rich's murder.
Assange: “Whistleblowers go to significant efforts to get us material and often very significant risks. There’s a 27 year old who works for the DNC who was shot in the back, murdered, just a few weeks ago for unknown reasons, as he was walking down the street in Washington.
Interviewer: That was just a robbery I believe wasn’t it?
Assange: No. There’s no finding.
Interviewer: What are you suggesting?
Assange: I’m suggesting that our sources take risks. And they become concerned to see things occurring like that.
Interviewer: And was he one of your sources then?
Assange: We don’t comment on who our sources are.
Interviewer: But why make the suggestion about a young guy being shot in the streets of Washington?
Assange: Because we have to understand how high the stakes are in the United States and that our sources face serious risks. That’s why they come to us so we can protect their anonymity.
Interviewer: But it’s quite something to suggest a murder. That’s basically what you’re doing.
Assange: Well others have suggested that. We are investigating to understand what happened in that situation with Seth Rich. I think it is a concerning situation. There is not a conclusion yet. We wouldn’t be willing to state a conclusion but we are concerned about it. More importantly, a variety of Wikileaks sources are concerned when that kind of thing happens.
Watch that segment below:
Assange's statement made in August, along with the offer of a reward, which even the interviewer expressed his certainty that Assange was indeed implying that Rich was the source behind the leaks, seemed to be a clear indication that Rich was the leaker, yet the MSM continued to treat any suspicion that his murder was in any way connected to being the leaker, as a "conspiracy theory."
One last piece of background before we get into the recent WikiLeaks/Seth Rich connection.
In those Podesta emails, there was a conversation about a leak that hit the press, unrelated to the WikiLeaks publications, but the tone of Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, is quite chilling nonetheless.
The email chain started with Robby Mook talking about "an example being made," which Podesta replied "Agree. Happy to talk to the David's. Call me crazy, but I think if we can survive the next month, it will be possible, maybe even straightforward to get our arms around this once there is an actual campaign. I'm definitely for making an example of a suspected leaker whether or not we have any real basis for it.
Joel Benenson, Hillary's campaign strategist, also spoke about making "examples now of people who have violated the trust of HRC and the rest of the team." To which Podesta stated "I generally agree with the point, but we need a strategy on this that goes beyond internal discipline."
Once again, let me highlight that the discussion was about a different leak to the MSM, not about the WikiLeaks, but it does give a view of the type of mindset of the Clinton campaign staffers before the Clinton campaign formally launched, and over a leak to the MSM that was not even particularly damaging.
NOTE- Rich's death was followed by Clinton researcher and author Victor Thorn on 8/1/16, ruled as a suicide from a self-inflicted gun-shot wound, and Shawn Lucas died on 8/2/16 after a video went viral of him serving the former DNC chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz with a lawsuit in early July 2016 charging that the DNC had committed "fraud" in favoring Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primary process. (Video here) His death was labeled accidental after taking a deadly combination of drugs.
PRESENT DAY - WIKILEAKS, 'SETH', GUCCIFER 2.0 & THE MODEL AND ACTRESS
On April 8, 2017, WikiLeaks highlighted a webpage which supposedly contains and series of DM's (Direct Messages) from former playboy model and actress, Robbin Young, and Guccifer 2.0. Young states on her website that she had been following Guccifer 2.0 (who has claimed to have provided the leaked emails to WikiLeaks) on Twitter and considers him to be a "hero and a friend," according to Zero Hedge.
The majority of the private conversation between Young and the Guccifer 2.0 was heavy flirting, but the reason WikiLeaks appears to have highlighted the page, is shown in a series of private messages dated August 25, 2016, where Guccifer 2.0 claimed to have a whistleblower at the DNC stating "his name is seth, he was my whistleblower." He further stated "i'm eager to find fact about seth, i'm sure it wasn't just a robbery." He followed that up with "i'd be grateful to u if there's any chance u can help me find the person who can find the evidence that seth was assassinated."
BOTTOM LINE
A couple of points to highlight here is that one, WikiLeaks did not specifically mention Seth Rich when they provided a link to Young's uploaded DM private chats with Guccifer 2.0, but nothing else in those private chats indicate anything that WikiLeaks has previously spoken about at length except the reference to Rich and his death. Another point is that tweet came amidst an overwhelming amount of tweets on the CIA and NSA spying, making it appear like it came out of nowhere and not related to the main focus of their previous or subsequent tweets.
Guccifer 2.0 had previously claimed on multiple occassions that he was the one that actively hacked the DNC, which apparently was discredited by others and highlighted by WikiLeaks on April 8, 2017, and the private messages do seem to offer an admittance on his part that he did not hack the emails, but they were leaked to him, by "Seth."
It appears that once again WikiLeaks is trying to reveal that Seth Rich was the originating source behind the leaked DNC, Podesta emails, while still maintaining their public policy that Assange reiterated in the interview shown at the beginning of the article where he said "We don’t comment on who our sources are."
To date there is a combined $150,000 in rewards being offered for information relating to the death of Seth Rich, $20,000 from WikiLeaks, $25,000 from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPDC), and $105,000 reward offered by Republican lobbyist Jack Burkman.
