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Wasserman Schultz rips theories on Rich’s death
Some doubt that robbery was motive in slaying of Democratic Party staffer
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee when young party staffer Seth Rich was killed, is condemning what she says are attempts to exploit his death for political gain.
“The things that the right wing, and some of the left wing, frankly, including my opponent, have spewed are vile and disgusting and offensive,” the Broward/Miami-Dade County congresswoman said in an interview with the Sun Sentinel. She said it should stop. “I want to say that Seth’s parents’ wishes should be honored and respected, to stop dragging his name through the mud and politicizing what was a horrible, unfortunate, sad murder, and the death of someone who was deeply committed to serving his country and help making the
world a better place,” Wasserman Schultz said.
A tweet this week from political operative Roger Stone, who is close to President Donald Trump, prompted Wasserman Schultz to comment about Rich. She hasn’t wanted to talk about Rich to avoid giving credence to conspiracy theories surrounding his death and to honor the wishes of Rich’s parents.
Rich, 27, was killed July 10 of last year in what police have described as a botched robbery.
Less than two weeks later, on July 22, WikiLeaks released thousands of stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee. U.S. intelligence services have concluded that Russia was responsible for the hacking of the DNC as part of its attempts to meddle in the U.S. presidential election.
The damage was immediate. Some of the emails showed Democratic Party staffers had favored Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders for the party’s presidential nomination, a revelation that forced Wasserman Schultz’s resignation as national Democratic Party chairwoman.
Conspiracy theorists have suggested — without evidence — that Rich, and not Russian hackers, might have provided explosive DNC emails to WikiLeaks, and that he might have been killed as part of a cover-up. The most prominent purveyors of that theory have been Fox News personality Sean Hannity and internet and radio conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
The issue was back in the news this week, when an investigator who had been hired by a Republican donor to solve the Rich murder said in a lawsuit that Trump and his former press secretary, Sean Spicer, played a role in shaping a false story that appeared on Fox News about the case.
Fox has retracted the story and denied it was originally published to distract people from the Russia investigation. Trump’s press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said it was “completely untrue” that the White House had any role in shaping it.
Also this week, Stone entered the fray. The Fort Lauderdale resident’s political activities date back to his work for former President Richard Nixon.
Stone was in contact last year with Guccifer 2.0, the person or organization involved in hacking the Democratic National Committee last year. Multiple news reports have cited U.S. intelligence agencies as having concluded Guccifer 2.0 is connected to Russian intelligence.
Weeks before the hacked emails of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta were released, Stone ominously predicted on Twitter that Podesta would soon be facing scrutiny. He’s denied that he colluded with Russians on behalf of Trump or that the Russians meddled in the U.S. election.
On Twitter this week, Stone wrote, “FACT – Wasserman-Schultz ‘IT consultant’ Awan was partying with Seth Rich the night of his murder! Eat it @TheAtlantic!”
He offered no evidence to support his claim. Stone didn’t immediately reply to an email Friday inquiring about his tweet.
Imran Awan, an information technology aide to Wasserman Schultz and multiple members of Congress, was arrested last week on a bank fraud charge. Wasserman Schultz said in the interview Thursday that Awan never worked for the DNC.
Most of the attempts to connect the Rich murder to WikiLeaks have come from people on the conservative end of the political spectrum. But it’s gotten some backing from people on the political left, including supporters of Sanders who don’t like Wasserman Schultz.
Tim Canova, who challenged Wasserman Schultz in the 2016 Democratic congressional primary and is running again in 2018, raised the issue several times earlier this year.
A video posted on Canova’s Facebook page in January shows him walking around the Washington, D.C., neighborhood where Rich was killed. He said there were reasons to doubt it was a robbery and suggested it could have been something more sinister.
In June, after reporters asked him about Rich, Canova took down the Facebook video and said he would refrain from talking about the case out of respect to the wishes of Rich’s family.
On Friday, he said via text message that it’s “funny how she and her supporters have been talking more about Seth Rich than I have been.”
Canova added later by email that he has refrained from talking about Rich recently. “Since Seth’s parents requested silence on his murder I have complied with their request.”
He said Wasserman Schultz, who answered questions about the Fox News story and Stone tweet on Thursday, was continuing to bring it up “apparently to try to score political points and in disregard of the wishes of his family.”
He said killings in Russia of journalists and dissidents — “under mysterious circumstances, some shot in the back at close range just like Seth Rich” — raise questions about “whether the Russians played any role in the murder in order to bring negative attention on the DNC and the U.S. political system.”
Canova said Wasserman Schultz’s criticism of him “suggests that she’s doing so simply to deflect attention from her own bizarre statements and suspicious actions related to the investigations of Awan.”
Tim Canova said via text message Friday that it’s “funny how [Wasserman Schultz] and her supporters have been talking more about Seth Rich than I have been.”