WASHINGTON – The murder of Seth Rich, the Democratic National Committee staffer some believe leaked DNC emails to WikiLeaks, remains unsolved.
Now, more than a year later, lobbyist and lawyer Jack Burkman has launched a new nationwide TV campaign pleading for the public's help.
As WND has reported, Rich, 27, the DNC's voter expansion data director, had accepted a position with Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign just before his death.
On July 10, 2016, he was fatally shot in the back in Washington, D.C., near his apartment in an affluent neighborhood. Rich had been working for the DNC at a time when emails from the organization were being handed over to WikiLeaks for publication.
The Metropolitan Police Department and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowers insist Rich was randomly killed during a "botched robbery."
But others are doubtful because he was found with his wallet, credit cards, watch, phone and other valuables intact.
See Burkman's request for help:
Rich's story has been largely ignored by establishment media. Those who have called attention to the suspicious circumstances surrounding the murder have been branded "conspiracy theorists," including Fox News host Sean Hannity.
Burkman, however, says he is determined to crack the mysterious Rich case.
"The independent investigation of the Seth Rich murder enters its most important and most probative phase yet. This has become personal, and I will get to the bottom of this no matter the cost," Burkman said in a statement announcing the ad campaign.
The ad is slated to air in the largest U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, in the coming weeks.
Burkman also has organized the Profiling Project, a Washington, D.C.-based team of forensic psychology graduate students and instructors to find Rich's killers, in addition to launching a website WhoKilledSeth.com and erecting billboards addressing the murder.
The Republican lobbyist claims Metropolitan Police Department officials are withholding key evidence from the public and obstructing the investigation for political purposes. He's filed a lawsuit against the MPD, demanding the release of Rich's medical examiner’s report, autopsy documents and ballistics reports, documents that are typically made public during most murder investigations.
The police's insistence on withholding the most basic information pertaining to Rich's murder is suspicious, he said.
As WND reported, the Profiling Project concluded in June that Rich's murder was most likely "committed by a hired killer or serial murderer" because "the crime scene was very organized to the point of being sanitized."
Burkman is offering a $105,000 reward of his personal money for information leading to the arrest of Rich's killer. Also, WikiLeaks is offering $20,000, One America News Network $100,000, the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department $25,000 and Businessman and investor Martin Shkreli $100,000.
The DNC, however, has offered no money for information leading to the arrest of the murderer of its own young staffer.
Instead, the DNC honored its murdered employee by dedicating a bike rack outside its headquarters to Rich’s memory.
On July 22, 2016, just 12 days after Rich’s death and days before the Democratic Party Convention in Philadelphia, WikiLeaks began publishing “44,053 emails and 17,761 attachments” from top DNC officials, leading to speculation that Rich might have been the source of party insider emails turned over to WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks' Julian Assange, in an August 2016 interview, appeared to suggest that Rich was one of his sources.
The emails revealed that high-ranking officials of the DNC and the Clinton team sabotaged Sen. Bernie Sander’s candidacy and used racist, anti-gay and sexist slurs when referring to constituents. The revelations led to the resignation of former DNC Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
In an interview with WND, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., warned that Americans should be suspicious and alarmed that the investigation into Rich’s murder is cast off as "conspiracy theory." He also urged President Trump to meet with Assange.
Rohrabacher met in August with Assange, who said he is seeking a pardon in exchange for "information that will be of dramatic importance to the United States" concerning the source of the DNC email leak during the 2016 presidential election. The California congressman said he walked away from his encounter with the WikiLeaks founder with assurances that Russia and Trump had nothing to do with leaking the emails.