His Name Was Seth Rich [Part 1: Introduction]
'There are a thousand and one gates leading into the orchard of mystical truth. Every human has his own gate. We must never make the mistake of wanting to enter the orchard by any gate but our own.'
Today marks 9 years since the murder of Seth Rich.
At 4:20 a.m. on July 10, 2016, 27-year-old DNC staffer Seth Rich was shot twice in the back while walking home in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Police called it a “botched robbery”—despite the fact that his phone, wallet, and watch were not taken.
Nine years later, his murder remains unsolved.
He would have been 36 years old today.
"It appears he was targeted."
— D.C. Homicide Captain Anthony Haythe.
“Seth was walking home, talking to his girlfriend on his cellphone. He was about a block from his place when his girlfriend heard voices or something in the background. Seth said he had to go. Two minutes later, he was shot.”
— Seth’s father
“CIC reports the sound of gunshots at 2134 Flagler Pl. NW. Upon arriving to the scene, the deceased was laying in the Southwest corner of the intersection of W St. and Flagler Pl. NW. The deceased was conscious and breathing with apparent gunshot wound(s) to the back. The deceased was transported to local area hospital and was pronounced by attending physician at 0557 hours.”
— Police Report (CCN #16113797)
This is the only known photo of Seth from the night he died.
On a recent trip to Washington, I visited that street corner, at the intersection of Flagler Place and W Street Northwest in the Bloomingdale neighborhood.
I believe Seth Rich’s bravery played a major role in Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump—making his death one of the most politically significant killings in modern U.S. history, perhaps the most pivotal assassination since JFK. Seth’s story strikes at the heart of the Russiagate hoax, which hinged on the claim that Russia hacked the DNC, and led directly to Trump’s first impeachment.
Yet I’d wager that 99% of Americans still don’t know the real story.
That’s why I am writing this investigation: I was not writing in 2016, but I am now. With the benefit of hindsight, the picture is clearer. My goal is to bring this story to light for readers who have never heard it or were told not to look too closely.
I hope people never forget his name.
His name was Seth Rich.
He was a patriot.
One day, history will remember him as a martyr and a hero.
According to Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia records, he was the only white victim among 54 unsolved homicides in Washington that year. That’s not a racist observation—it’s a statistical outlier. White young professionals are rarely murdered at random in safe, residential neighborhoods.
Two days after he died, on July 12th, 2016, Hillary Clinton used Seth's murder to advocate in a campaign speech for stricter gun control.
Seth was not just some low level DNC Staffer, as ‘‘conspiracy debunkers’’ claim — he was the Voter Expansion Data Director for the Democratic National Committee (DNC). In this role, Rich had access to the DNC server. Professionally, he described himself as a data analyst.
He was also a passionate supporter of Bernie Sanders, running several social media accounts dedicated to Bernie’s 2016 campaign. His confirmed accounts include the Reddit username MeGrimlock4 as well as Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, and Tumblr accounts under the Pandas4Bernie branding.
Here is Seth’s friend tagging him under the Pandas4Bernie handle on Instagram:
Seth’s Reddit account contained numerous comments about his love for cycling. In his memory, the DNC installed a commemorative bike rack outside its headquarters… That posthumous DNC bike rack referred to him as ‘‘Panda.’’
A year after Seth’s death, his former boss, Andrew Therriault, then the director of data science for the Democratic National Committee, who had recruited Seth to the DNC from their previous polling firm, Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, publicly mocked him on Twitter. He tagged Seth’s old “Panda4Progress” account and called him “an embarrassment.”
Imagine getting murdered, and then your boss dances on your grave on Twitter?
T.A. Frank, a contributor to Vanity Fair, penned a piece titled Hillary Clinton Cannot Be Stopped, in which he described Clinton’s frustration with Bernie Sanders’ rising popularity in sinister terms, invoking a panda metaphor:
“For the second time in eight years, Hillary Clinton sees the Democratic nomination being pawed by a charming interloper, like a priceless vase grabbed by a panda. She’d prefer to shoot the panda, but that could mean breaking the vase, and onlookers would object.”
Referring to Sanders’ momentum, Frank concluded with exasperation:
“Maybe shoot the panda.”
The last Reddit post Seth ever made was in the /r/MURICA subreddit about how much he loved America and ‘‘had to restrict myself to buying only one new piece of America clothing a year.’’ A big American flag hung over his bed.
On February 18, 2015, Seth’s Reddit account shared a quote from Elie Wiesel, calling it “a guiding quote for me since I was 16.” In Jewish mysticism (Seth was Jewish), the “orchard” symbolizes hidden knowledge or spiritual truth. The quote urges each person to seek authentic truth through their own path, no matter the cost… It reads, in retrospect, like a whistleblower’s declaration of principle.
"There are a thousand and one gates leading into the orchard of mystical truth. Every human being has his own gate. We must never make the mistake of wanting to enter the orchard by any gate but our own. To do this is dangerous for the one who enters and also for those who are already there."
It's been a guiding quote for me since I was 16.
— Seth Rich’s last Reddit post
Shortly after Seth’s death, someone edited one of his old Reddit comments in the /r/Omaha subreddit—where he grew up, and had posted about a lost dog—to remove his email address. The asterisk next to “1 year ago” in the screenshot below indicates the comment was edited after the original post.
In real life, Seth often spoke about wanting to make politics more transparent & accountable.
Twelve days after Seth was murdered, on July 22, Wikileaks released 19,252 emails showing senior DNC leadership conspiring to prevent Bernie Sanders from securing the nomination. The Washington Post reported: "Many of the most damaging emails suggest the committee was actively trying to undermine Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign."
Three days after that leak, Debbie Wasserman Schultz was forced to resign as Chairwoman of the DNC. She wasn’t the only one to fall. The leadership purge was swift and total. The top of the Democratic Party was decapitated. DNC CEO Amy Dacey also resigned, as did Communications Director Luis Miranda and Chief Financial Officer Brad Marshall.
To contain the fallout, longtime Democratic operative Donna Brazile was appointed interim chair of the DNC.
This story takes many convoluted twists and turns, and I will try my best to lay it out in a logical way, but Donna Brazile’s involvement is where we will start.
Donna Brazile
Five days after Seth was murdered, Donna Brazile published a statement on her company website expressing sorrow over his death.
Brazile was then appointed to manage the DNC’s tip line for information related to his murder, and even traveled to Omaha to attend his funeral.
Years later, Brazile dedicated her memoir, Hacks, to the memory of Seth Rich.
In that memoir, Donna Brazile revealed that Seth Rich’s death left her afraid for her own life — but why would she fear assassination if this was simply a botched random robbery?
‘‘I felt some responsibility for Seth Rich’s death … I remember the day I jotted down that advice in the sage green notebook I used for my cyberbriefings. At the top I put a gold-and-purple logo sticker from LSU, my alma mater, and at the left corner below, a midnight blue circle with white letters that said VOTE FOR SETH RICH. When I shut that cover after the conference call, I stood up from my desk to look out over the railroad tracks that first drew me to this room. Maybe I shouldn’t have my desk in front of this window, I thought. The space from here across the tracks was open. What if there was a sniper hiding in those trees across the way? … Where did I live? Did I live alone? What kind of security system did I have at home?I didn’t have any security system, I said. Just good locks on the doors and sturdy windows … Seth Rich was never very far from my mind.
— Donna Brazile’s memoir
In her memoir, Brazile says that the FBI was involved in investigating Seth Rich’s murder “The FBI said that they did not see any Russian fingerprints there,” she writes, “but they promised to look into the case.”
This directly contradicts an affidavit submitted on October 9, 2018, in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, in which FBI Section Chief David M. Hardy testified under oath that “the FBI did not investigate any matters pertaining to Mr. Rich.”
ABC News also reported a full year after Seth died that ‘‘the FBI is not investigating the unsolved murder of Seth Rich.’’ Yet Brazile revealed that the FBI was involved in the case—despite public denials. Still, a DNC spokesman insisted to ABC News: “So much of the conspiracy theory has been dependent on the allegation of federal investigators being involved, and the fact that the FBI has not and never had been involved with this investigation is critical to understanding just how false these conspiracy theories are.”
Donna Brazile, known for her careful choice of words, then wrote that “some Trump supporters were promoting the baseless conspiracy theory that Seth had been murdered by the DNC because he was the one who had leaked our emails to WikiLeaks.” But look closely at her wording: “murdered by the DNC.” That misrepresents what most people were actually suggesting. Few, if any, believed that DNC staffers literally carried out the killing.
Brazile then recounts how when she brought up Seth’s murder to Hillary Clinton, Clinton grew visibly uncomfortable, abruptly ended the conversation, and “really had to go.” Brazile says that raising the topic felt like crossing a line—one so serious that she “accepted that I might never hear from [Clinton] again.”
Brazile then wrote that ‘‘she seriously contemplated setting in motion a process to replace Hillary Clinton as the party's 2016 presidential nominee with then-Vice President Biden’’, because Clinton's campaign was "anemic" and had taken on "the odor of failure."
Asked later by ABC News, “You mentioned Seth Rich who, of course, was killed during the campaign. Did you feel under threat?” Brazile responded, “Every day,” adding, “My house right now is—I got every different kind of security device. I had to get my home swept. I had to get the DNC swept twice. It was horrible.”
One theory — put forward by conservative journalist Matt Couch — asserts that Donna Brazile was at the hospital the night Seth died.
This theory remains unconfirmed, and Brazile has publicly denied it. In an email, Brazile said she was in Washington state on the day of Rich’s murder.
But there’s reason to doubt that.
First, she had been scheduled to appear on State of the Union with Jake Tapper that same morning—a show filmed in Washington, D.C.—and canceled at the last minute.
Second, her tweets from that day are geotagged in the D.C. area—specifically Arlington, Virginia. FAA records confirm she didn’t travel to Seattle until the day after Seth Rich was killed. Brazile didn’t board a flight out of Dulles International Airport until roughly 12 hours after Seth’s murder.
Third, Brazile has a documented history of lying. She was fired from her role at the DNC after leaking debate questions to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
"As it pertains to the CNN Debates, I never had access to questions and would never have shared them with the candidates if I did."
— Donna Brazile, October 11, 2016
‘‘Among the many things I did in my role as a Democratic operative and D.N.C. Vice Chair prior to assuming the interim D.N.C. Chair position was to share potential town hall topics with the Clinton campaign … sending those emails was a mistake I will forever regret.’’
While some have questioned Matt Couch’s credibility, it’s undeniable that he had real law enforcement sources. His contacts were so legitimate, in fact, that Rolling Stone ran a full article exposing one of them—a D.C. Metropolitan Police officer—who was subsequently forced to resign after being doxxed.
Then, on November 11, 2017, Couch wrote a blog post for one of his websites declaring that he’d learned about a witness to the Rich murder … Couch had too much specific information to have made an educated or lucky guess.
…
It didn’t take the tipster long to piece together a convincing theory of who [the source] really was. His name was Douglas Berlin, the [Rolling Stone] tipster wrote. He worked as a cop for the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department … As a cop, Berlin had access to case data available only to MPD employees.
Rod Wheeler
In early 2017, Seth Rich’s family hired former D.C. homicide detective Rod Wheeler as a private investigator to look into the case.
I added Rod on LinkedIn, and he accepted my request, and he read my message to him when I reached out, but he didn’t answer me.
One of Wheeler’s first steps was to contact the lead detective at the Metropolitan Police Department. Shortly afterward, that detective allegedly informed Donna Brazile—despite her having no official role in law enforcement. According to Wheeler, Brazile then called him directly, demanding to know why he was asking questions about Seth’s relationships at the DNC and attempting to discourage him from digging further.
“The high-ranking DNC official that called the police after I inquired about Rich’s case was Donna Brazile,” Wheeler told WND. “Why shouldn’t I reveal who it was?”
Wheeler later told reporter Marina Marraco that he'd been informed of a “stand-down order” within the D.C. police department, suggesting political interference in the investigation. He went so far as to describe Brazile as a potential person of interest:
“When I called the police department, that information was immediately given to Donna Brazile. She then called me, wanting to know why I was asking questions about Seth’s relationships at the DNC. As a police investigator, that automatically makes me think Donna Brazile is in the category of persons of interest as it relates to the death of Seth Rich.”
Soon after, Wheeler’s investigation hit serious roadblocks. He claimed both the Rich family and the D.C. police began limiting his access to information. He also said he was warned off the case entirely and told by a source inside the department that “someone high up” had ordered it to be shut down. In his words, the investigation had been “shut down at the highest levels.”
Facing mounting legal and media pressure, the Rich family issued a statement distancing themselves from Wheeler and disavowing his claims. Wheeler began to walk back portions of his public statements, saying in later interviews that Fox News had “misquoted” him.
In August 2017, Wheeler filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News. He alleged that the network had fabricated quotes or inserted them into its reporting—later retracted—to falsely portray him as the source of the claim that Seth Rich had leaked emails to WikiLeaks. He said he had been manipulated and used as a pawn in a politically motivated narrative. The case was dismissed by a federal judge in 2018 and again on appeal in 2020, with the court ruling that Wheeler had not provided sufficient evidence to support his claims.
WikiLeaks
Wheeler’s investigation exploded into national headlines on May 15, 2017, when he told Fox 5 DC that Seth Rich had been in contact with WikiLeaks. His exact words were:
“My investigation up to this point shows there was some degree of email exchange between Seth Rich and WikiLeaks.’’
In the same interview, Wheeler was asked directly, “You have sources at the FBI saying that there is information that could link Seth Rich to WikiLeaks?” He replied without hesitation:
“Absolutely. Yeah. That’s confirmed.”
This gets to the core of the story, which until now we haven’t fully addressed: Was Seth Rich the source of the WikiLeaks DNC emails? That question—largely buried by mainstream media and aggressively dismissed as a conspiracy theory—sits at the center of the case, and has enormous implications for how we understand Russiagate, the 2016 election, and the political weaponization of “misinformation.”
END OF PART 1
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thanks for writing this up. i always forget this day.
everything about this case is an outlier. i wrote about one outlier aspect here: https://www.brookhines.com/p/alleged-seth-rich-conspiracy-source
these guys are still pursuing what actually happened to the DNC server…the supposed russian hack, or the supposed leak by Seth to wikileaks…https://www.sleuth.news/p/pavel-vrublevsky-dnc-hack-is-fraud?r=uwuw&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
they don’t mention rich or any of this. it’s just hanging there in the silence.
Excellent reportage, and a reminder of why the Israel Lobby targeted you for destruction. You hopefully will delve into it later in the series, but it cannot be understated what a loathsome fraud Bernie is, and his failure to push for a thorough investigation into this young supporters' obvious assassination was a low point even for him.