Aaron Rich refusing to authorize Wikileaks to reveal info on murdered brother Seth

Alicia Powe
The Gateway Pundit
Thu, 14 Jun 2018 17:38 UTC

Murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich

Former President Obama's White House Counsel, representing the brother of slain DNC staffer Seth Rich, are "desperately" working to obstruct WikiLeaks from revealing the truth of how it obtained troves of DNC and Clinton campaign emails during the 2016 election, an attorney who's been subpoenaed by Rich's legal team warns.

Aaron Rich, the brother of Seth Rich, filed a lawsuit in April in US District Court in the District of Columbia, against the Ed Butowsky, a wealth management and financial adviser who financed a private investigator to help the Rich family find Seth's killer(s); Butowsky's attorney, Ty Clevenger; Matt Couch and his media company, America First Media; and the conservative-leaning newspaper the Washington Times for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy, among other actions.

Last week, Twitter sent out notices on behalf of Rich's legal team to Clevenger, Butowsky, Wikileaks, Julian Assange, Roger Stone, Kim DotCom, Matt Couch, the Gateway Pundit and Gateway Pundit reporter Cassandra Fairbanks, demanding they turn over all direct messages from their Twitter accounts to Aaron Rich's Democrat-connected attorneys.

Rich's attorneys then dropped the subpoena of Twitter messages on Tuesday.

The main reason Rich's lawyers "unlawfully" subpoenaed the private messages of opposing counsel and investigative journalists, Clevenger warned in an interview with the Gateway Pundit, is to retaliate against him after he demanded the Rich family authorize WikiLeaks to reveal what it knows about the DNC data breach.

"It was retaliation - I had been pushing for them to authorize WikiLeaks to reveal what it knows - I kept pushing. They responded by turning around and trying to subpoena my private communications. They won't authorize WikiLeaks, they claim 'we are going to subpoena WikiLeaks, but they won't issue any subpoenas. The Rich family won't authorize Wikileaks to reveal what it knows - if they have nothing to hide, why not authorize Wikileaks to reveal the information?

"Private Twitter communications I had about Seth Rich, they wanted it - never mind whether it was 'attorney-client privilege,'" he continued. "They just wanted to grab my private communication. I never even heard of lawyers on one side trying to do that to lawyers on the other side - that's crazy. They withdrew it because they knew they were going to get in trouble. It was just harassment - they were just trying to send me a message."

WikiLeaks protects it sources, "but if the Rich family came out and said 'tell the world what you know, reveal what emails you have regarding to Rich' then, Assange would be willing to do it," he continued.

"They won't authorize Wikileaks to reveal what it knows. If they have nothing to hide, why not authorize Wikileaks to reveal the information? "For all we know there's was a contract between WikiLeaks and Seth Rich and if there's a contract, his estate can still enforce the contract. And who is in charge of the estate? Aaron Rich," he said.

"That's all we are asking him, unseal the case. Put the facts out there. Quit trying to hide behind all of these excuses. That is the heart of what's going on. They are going out at desperate lengths to change the subject from the fact that they don't want WikiLeaks to reveal what it knows."

In the summer of 2016, in the heat of a highly contentious presidential campaign, Seth Rich was shot twice in the back while he walked home and died in a hospital hours later. The Metropolitan Police Department insist his murder was a "botched robbery," despite his wallet, credit cards, watch and phone being left in his possession. But independent investigators have asserted his murder "more likely (was) committed by a hired killer or serial murderer."

On July 22 2016, just twelve days after Rich's death on the eve of the Democratic Party Convention in Philadelphia, WikiLeaks released 20,000 emails from DNC officials.

Aaron Rich's suit alleges the defendants have peddled "false and unfounded claims" and acted "with reckless disregard for the truth" to "advance" their political agendas by claiming he and his brother orchestrated leaks from the DNC to Wikileaks in exchange for cash.

Rich's claims are bogus, Clevenger argued, because Rich's father, Joel, admitted to Butowsky that his sons leaked the emails and Butowsky has only reiterated what the Joel family confirmed.

Seth Rich's parents, Joel and Mary Rich, and brother, Aaron

"They are saying it's some giant conspiracy in this allegation and that allegedly my client was part of it. My client, Ed Butowsky's position is, he's repeating what Joel Rich, Seth's father, told him. According to what Ed relayed to me, Ed told Joel that what he had been hearing, about Rich leaking the DNC emails, and Joel responded saying he 'already knew what his sons had done,'" he said. "Based on my understanding, from what Joel said to Ed, he did not dispute the idea at all that his sons were involved in leaking emails."

Comment: Ed Butowsky: Seth Rich's father confirmed his son was the Wikileaks leaker

"It's a Kamikaze maneuver, the whole Russian collusion story is falling apart so to keep it alive they are all filing these lawsuits with all of these wild allegations. It's a desperation move," he continued. "Somebody on the Republican side has to stand up and push a lot harder and that includes Trump, he's got to get his own Justice Department together. Jeff Sessions has been a grave disappointment."

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has also insinuated was Rich was the source WikiLeaks used to obtain the emails.

Clevenger has filed bar grievances against former FBI Director James Comey based on evidence that he lied to Congress and destroyed evidence from the Hillary Clinton email investigation. He has tried to get Clinton and her personal attorneys disbarred for their handling of her official emails during her time as secretary of state. He also filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in 2016 asking for documents from the FBI and the Justice Department about the Clinton email investigation. The FBI is declined to turn over files, arguing a lack of public interest in the matter.

Attorney Ty Clevenger

Rich's primary attorneys are partner Michael J. Gottlieb and associate Meryl Governski of Boies Schiller Flexner, LLP, a left-wing law firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. Gotliedb served as Special Assistant to the President and Associate White House Counsel from 2009- 2010, where he focused on national security law and judicial nominations. In January 2010, he left the White House to serve as Senior Civilian and Deputy Director of Combined Joint Interagency Task Force 435 in Kabul Afghanistan. Following his time in Afghanistan, Gottlieb returned to the White House Counsel's Office, where he served until the end of February 2013. Ms. Gottlieb is a former public relations agent for CNN.

Neither Gottlieb or Governski has responded to Gateway Pundit's request for comment.

Another Rich's legal team is David Boies, chairman of the law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner, whos has been involved in various high-profile cases in the United States, including Bush v. Gore, the defense of Harvey Weinstein against sexual abuse allegations and United States v. Microsoft Corp.

Rich's story has been largely ignored by establishment media. Those who have called attention to the suspicious circumstances surrounding his murder have been branded "conspiracy theorists," including Fox News host Sean Hannity. But it is still unclear whether DNC was hacked or leaked.

Not a single government agency has even viewed the hacked computer servers to conduct a forensic data-breach investigation. Rather than availing the server to the FBI for forensic examination, the DNC hired the private cyber security firm CrowdStrike to provide replicas of the server's data to the FBI and destroyed the server.

Federal Election Commission records show that CrowdStrike received a $98,849.84 check from the Democratic National Committee the day after Seth Rich was killed. Yet, the DNC has yet to offer a reward for information leading to the arrest of the murderer of its own young staffer.

Comment: Private cyber security firm payments coincide with deaths of Seth Rich, Shawn Lucas

WikiLeaks is offering $20,000 for information leading to the arrest of Rich's killer. The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department is offering $25,000; One America News Network, $100,000; GOP lobbyist Jack Burkman, $105,000; and businessman and investor Martin Shkreli, $100,000. The DNC honored its murdered employee by dedicating a bike rack outside its headquarters to Rich's memory.