Former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe personally inquired whether the bureau was looking into the 2016 murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich.
In an interview that was part of investigative piece published by Yahoo News on Tuesday, McCabe said he reached out to FBI agents after he heard about conspiracy theories concerning Rich and was told, “There’s no there there.”
There have long been conspiracy theories about whether the FBI had proof showing Rich, who was slain in Washington, D.C., in the summer of 2016, was the source of the WikiLeaks publication of stolen emails from Democrats in the run-up to the presidential election. There were claims that James Comey, who was FBI director until he was fired in May 2017, covered up a politically motivated murder.
At every turn the conspiracy theories have turned out to be baseless, including claims about the FBI’s role. A spokeswoman for the bureau’s Washington field office said the office never opened an investigation into the murder of the 27-year-old DNC data director, leaving it to the Washington Metropolitan Police Department to take on the case.
McCabe, the FBI’s No. 2 official, took on the role of acting director after Comey was fired by President Trump. McCabe was fired from the FBI on March 16, 2018, after the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General determined he misled investigators about the role he had in leaking information to the Wall Street Journal in October 2016 about the investigation into the Clinton Foundation. McCabe argued that his firing was an attempt to discredit the FBI and federal Russia meddling investigation.
Rich was shot twice in the back on July 10, 2016, while walking home from Lou’s City Bar in Washington, D.C. He was on the phone with his girlfriend when he was attacked by two people. Police have described the death as a botched robbery, believing Rich tried to fight off the assailants, who did not take his wallet or other valuables.
The federal prosecutor who until last year worked alongside D.C. police investigating Rich’s death, Deborah Sines, told Yahoo News that Russian intelligence agents spread a false report claiming assassins working for Hillary Clinton killed Rich just days after his murder. The conspiracy theory was amplified by WikiLeaks, right-leaning media, and allies of Trump.
In fact, special counsel Robert Mueller focused a portion of his Russia investigation report on WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, finding they falsely suggested Rich was the victim of a politically motivated hit job for leaking stolen emails.
No one has been charged in connection with Rich’s death. Sines said she suspects the two people responsible for the death are connected to drug-dealing activity in nearby housing projects. Seth’s father, Joel, recently said he was told the case remains active.
