Family blasts right-wing media for spreading fake news story about slain DNC staffer as Russia sc

[riversedge]

Source: raw story







16 May 2017 at 09:46 ET


The family of Seth Rich, the DNC staffer who was murdered by unknown assailants last summer, has publicly slammed a private investigator who claimed that he found evidence that Rich had been in contact with WikiLeaks.

In a statement released to the media, the family said that private investigator Rod Wheeler — who is a former Fox News contributor who once claimed that gun-toting lesbian gangs were roaming around the country trying to recruit children into lesbianism — was not authorized to speak with the media without the family’s permission. They also said that Wheeler’s services as an investigator were offered to them and that his work was paid for by an unnamed third party.

Despite all this, Wheeler nonetheless claimed to a local reporter that he has “absolutely” found evidence that Rich was in contact with WikiLeaks before his murder. Rich’s purported contact with WikiLeaks is part of a broader conspiracy that claimed either Hillary Clinton or the Democratic Party had Rich murdered for leaking internal DNC emails to WikiLeaks.

Rich’s family, however, forcefully denied that Wheeler had shown them any such evidence.

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Wheeler’s claims were widely reported on right-wing conspiracy websites such as InfoWars, and were also peddled by Fox News on Tuesday morning.
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Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/family-blasts-right-wing-media-for-spreading-fake-news-story-about-slain-dnc-staffer-as-russia-scandal-deepens/

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How horrible for the family to have to go this sorrow again.

Link to tweet

Tweet:

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[deurbano]

1. Shameless. ANYthing to divert attention from disastrous White House news.

It's the only response they know: find a bogus Clinton "scandal" to peddle.... yet AGAIN.

[Scurrilous]

2. Hillary silenced the family!!1!

[Blue_Tires]

3. And motherfuck Assange for manufacturing this "story"

to smear Hillary and burnish his own public profile...

He played this story up like a pro and the alt-right/Intercept left and other assorted Hillary Derangement Loons lapped it up

[WhiteTara]

4. It's more likely that Russia had him killed

because he was getting close to the actual perpetrators.

[Blue_Tires]

5. ....

Link to tweet

[Oneironaut]

7. They better be prepared for death threats, vehicles driving by their house slowly, etc.

The Alex Jones crowd is uniquely crazy. They'll no doubt see this as a challenge. The truth is, they've already been branded as being "paid off by the Jews."

If only there was a way to arrest every sick SOB who acts as Jones's unofficial "soldiers."

[Blue_Tires]

8. I am so fucking DONE with TYT, who out of Hillary hatred

so openly want this story to be true...

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Link to tweet

[mahatmakanejeeves]

9. The story was on DC's WTTG, channel 5, last night.

You can find the video. The WaPo article says that WTTG is the DC Fox News affiliate. That is not correct. WTTG is a Fox owned-and-operated station. It broadcasts over the air. Fox News is a cable operation. Cable and over the air are two different things.

WTTG

WTTG, channel 5, is a Fox owned-and-operated television station located in the American capital city of Washington, D.C.. The station is owned by the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of 21st Century Fox, and is part of a duopoly with MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated station WDCA (channel 20). The station's studios/office and transmitter facilities are co-located on Wisconsin Avenue in the Friendship Heights neighborhood in the northwest quadrant of Washington.

I watch channel 5 all the time.

Family of slain Seth Rich says reports he fed WikiLeaks DNC info are untrue

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Family of slain Seth Rich says reports he fed WikiLeaks DNC info are untrue

By Peter Hermann May 16 at 1:32 PM

The family of slain Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich rejected Fox News reports that he had leaked work e-mails to WikiLeaks before he was fatally shot last year in the District.

The reports, which gained traction on social media, said an FBI forensics examination showed Rich transferred 44,053 DNC e-mails and 17,761 attachments to a now-deceased WikiLeaks director. ... Rich’s parents, Joel and Mary Ann, said Tuesday through a spokesman that they do not believe their son gave any information to WikiLeaks. Rich was shot on July 10, 2016 near his home in Northwest Washington’s Bloomingdale neighborhood.
....

The allegations were reported by Fox News, including WTTG-TV, the District’s Fox News affiliate. The reports cited a private investigator, Rod Wheeler, who Fox said was hired by the family and had previously worked for D.C. police. He also has been an on-air contributor to the Fox-5 news station. Fox also cited an unnamed federal official who said Rich had transferred thousands of emails to a WikiLeaks director. Fox’s source asserts those emails were transferred between January 2015 and May 2016.
....

D.C. police said Wheeler worked as an officer from 1990 to 1995 and they were checking records to determine if he served in homicide. Sternbeck, the police spokesman, said Wheeler was fired from the agency.

Peter Hermann covers crime for The Washington Post.
Follow @phscoop

[jpak]

10. Wow - what smug little asshole