Assange Suggests Murdered DNC Staffer Was Whistleblower

Seth Rich shot to death in Washington last month
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 10, 2016 4:33 AM CDT

Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich was shot to death in Washington on July 10 in what police initially said may have been an attempted robbery, per NBC Washington, though Rich was found with his cellphone, credit cards, and cash, his father tells KMTV. Almost a month later, Julian Assange suggests Rich was instead a whistleblower murdered because of an alleged role in the DNC email leak. "Whistleblowers often take very significant efforts to bring us material and often at very significant risks,” Assange told Dutch TV program Nieuwsuur on Tuesday, per BuzzFeed. "There's a 27-year-old who works for the DNC and who was shot in the back, murdered, just a few weeks ago, for unknown reasons."

The reporter described the shooting as a robbery, to which Assange replied, "No. There's no finding … I'm suggesting that our sources take risks." He added "we don’t comment on who our sources are," but said that "a variety of WikiLeaks sources are concerned when that kind of thing happens." Assange has offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in Rich’s death, reports the Inquistr. "We are investigating," he said. Suspected ties to WikiLeaks are now among several rumors circulating, particularly on Reddit, related to Rich's death. Some say he had planned to talk to the FBI about possible election fraud in the Democratic primary, possibly involving the Clintons, though there's no evidence. (More Julian Assange stories.)

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