So much time and energy has been involved in the second volume of the Mueller Report, the part about Donald Trump’s covering up involvement with the Russians and obstructing justice. However, the first half of the Report has some knee-knocking information. The Russians did invade the U.S. using a deadly tool, that of cyber-war. With the 2020 presidential election rapidly closing in and Trump’s now open request for Russia’s help in giving him a second term, people should worry, and here is why.
Russian intelligence agents planted a phony report that indicated the Democratic National Committee (DNC) staffer Seth Rich, 27, has been shot down by a Hillary Clinton squad of assassins. The conspiracy theory caught fire among Donald Trump’s followers. POTUS even gave rise to it after he became president.
Seth Rich came from Omaha, Nebraska and got a job at the DNC. He was assigned to work on voting rights issues. His friends said he was “outgoing, fun-loving,” according to a Yahoo exclusive:
‘….an outgoing, fun-loving young man — he once showed up at a friend’s hospital room wearing a polar bear costume — who was nonetheless passionate about his job of expanding voting rights. Rich landed a job at the DNC to work on voting rights issues. Friends described him as an outgoing, fun-loving young man — he once showed up at a friend’s hospital room wearing a polar bear costume — who was nonetheless passionate about his job of expanding voting rights.’
Within three days after Seth’s death, the Russian intelligence organization SVR sent out a fake “bulletin.” They made it look like a real intelligence report. It alleged the staffer had been murdered in what the police said was a “botched robbery.
Former assistant U.S. attorney leading the Rich case until she retired last year Deborah Sines said:
‘To me, having a foreign intelligence agency set up one of my decedents with lies and planting false stories, to me that’s pretty outrageous. Maybe other people don’t think it’s that outrageous. I did … once it became clear to me that this was coming from the SVR, then that triggers a lot of very serious (questions about) “What do I do with this?”‘
Seth Rich’s mother Mary said that both she and her husband were on the podcast:
‘You’re used, you’re lied to, you’re a pawn in your own son’s death. I wish they had the chance to experience the hell we have gone through. Because this is worse than losing my son the first time. This is like losing him all over again.’
Sines said that the Russian strategy was incredibly simple:
‘It appeared to me that it was a very clear campaign to deflect an ongoing federal criminal investigation/ So then you have to look at why is Russia doing this? … It’s not rocket science before you add it up and you go, ‘Oh, if Seth is the leaker to WikiLeaks — it doesn’t have anything to do with the Russians. So, of course, Russia’s interest in doing this is incredibly transparent…Let’s blame it on Seth Rich. He’s a very convenient target.’
Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon texted CBS’s 60 Minutes:
‘Huge story … he was a Bernie guy … it was a contract kill, obviously.’
Fox’s Sean Hannity called it “explosive:”
‘(It) might expose the single biggest fraud, lies, perpetrated on the American people by the media and the Democrats in our history.’
Trump attorney Jay Sekulow said on Fox’s Sean Hannity’s show on May 18, 2017:
‘It sure doesn’t look like a robbery. There’s one thing this thing undercuts is this whole Russia argument, (which) is such subterfuge.’
Sines worked with the FBI regarding the Fox News claims. He said the case was a “complete fabrication:”
‘…no connection between Seth and WikiLeaks. And there was no evidence on his work computer of him downloading and disseminating things from the DNC.’
According to the former prosecutor “being a witness to a murder can mean a death sentence:”
‘In Washington, D.C., being a witness to a murder can mean a death sentence. I’ve lost witnesses that were murdered because they were witnesses. Because they told me what happened. And it’s — there’s a very strong and anti-snitch culture in Washington, D.C., much stronger than it is in some other areas in the country. Add assassination language, Russians, add all those buzzwords, who wants to be a witness in a case like that?’
Sines continued:
‘So I know that someone is going to talk. I know that. It’s a lot easier after a couple of years go by for people to talk about this, because they think they got away with it.’
Rich’s neighbor Mark Mueller (no relation to Robert Mueller) was among the first on the scene. He said:
‘We’ve had so many holdups on the same corner, with the same method of holdup, where two guys grab the person. They hold a gun to the head, while one person takes the phone and makes the owner of the phone go into the apps and unarm anything that could be traced. We’ve had meetings with the police days before this, screaming at the police in our civic association meetings, begging for help.’
Former interim chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Donna Brazile said:
“I’ve never encountered someone so genuine in his belief that every American should be able to participate in that political process.’
Sines said she believed there were two people involved, a shooter and an “aider and abettor.” She said she thought they were connected to drug-dealing:
‘I’m convinced one or both of them will eventually be brought to justice.’
