Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Seth Rich Parents Refute New Claims On Wikileaks Contact

The parents of slain Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich are speaking out against yet another conspiracy theory surrounding their son’s death — even though the latest disclosure comes from an investigator they hired.

Rob Wheeler, a private investigator hired by the family, went on Fox News and [claimed(https://forward-hcl50.orc.scoolaid.net/fast-forward/372053/slain-democratic-staffer-seth-rich-contacted-wikileaks-before-mystery-murde/) he had evidence that Rich had been in email contact with wikileaks before he was murdered outside his DC home. This could feed into the claim made by conspiracy theorists that Rich was in some way involved in the DNC email leak and was targeted by the Democratic Party in retaliation.

The Rich family was quick to dispute Wheeler’s claims.

“We see no facts, we have seen no evidence, we have been approached with no emails and only learned about this when contacted by the press,” Brad Bauman, a spokesman for the Rich family told BuzzFeed News.

Ever since the July 10 unsolved murder, Mary and Joel Rich have been battling recurring conspiracy theories aimed at tying their son’s killing with the pre-election DNC email leak. The parents and the Washington D.C. police believe it was a robbery gone wrong.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.